Report: Worrisome Rise in Underweight Babies
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David Crary, AP, June 12, 2008
The percentage of underweight babies born in the U.S. has increased to its highest rate in 40 years, according to a new report that also documents a recent rise in the number of children living in poverty.
The data on low birth weights is worrisome because such babies—those born at less than 5.5 pounds—are at greater risk of dying in infancy or experiencing long-term disabilities.
The findings were released Thursday in the annual Kids Count report on the health and well-being of America’s youth, which measures the states in 10 categories. Overall, the report found progress, as well as some setbacks.
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In composite rankings for all 10 indicators, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Utah ranked the highest, while Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Alabama and South Carolina ranked the lowest.
Beavers noted that in many categories, the United States compares poorly to other developed countries. A recent study released by UNICEF ranked the U.S. second worst out of 33 industrialized nations in a composite index on child well-being, and it was 29th in regard to the percentage of babies with low birth weights.
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Beavers said part of the overall increase in low-birthweight babies was due to a rise in multiple births as more older women use fertility treatments to conceive. But she said the birth-weight problem also has been worsening for single-baby deliveries.
The rate of low-weight births is sharply higher for blacks (13.6 percent) than for whites (7.3 percent) or Hispanics (6.9 percent). One important factor, Beavers said, is the mother’s overall health at the time of pregnancy and her access to good prenatal care.
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(Posted on June 12, 2008)
Comments
What is not said in this article is that black preemies do far better than other races.
Posted by Spartan24 at 7:43 PM on June 12
“One important factor, Beavers said, is the mother’s overall health at the time of pregnancy and her access to good prenatal care.”
Wrong! Her access to prenatal care is meaningless if she doesn’t take advantage of it. I challenge any of you liberals out there (and you’ve got my email below)to show me one pregnant woman in America who has no access to prenatal care. Free clinics are all over the place - but, while you can bring a horse to water, you can’t force him to drink. So the real culprit is not access to prenatal care. It’s the non-caring, casual attitude so common among blacks when it comes to good health habits in general and prenatal care in particular. It comes down to the primitive mentality that says, “if it’s not here in front of me right now, then it doesn’t matter to me”.
Posted by jewamongyou at 7:49 PM on June 12
As a former middle school teacher who quit three years ago to start my own business, I can attest to the fact that I have noticed that young Black children tend to be much smaller thatn they used to be. The White children, especially boys are much bigger and taller.
It is indeed interesting.
Posted by Sharon at 8:46 PM on June 12
I work as an RN in the delivery rooms and ER at a hospital in a major metro inner city area. Black and hispanic babies are always puny (5 lbs. or less) in relationship to babies born of poor White parents (7 lbs. or less). I’ve noticed this trend in a three year period. Pregnant black women are constantly showing up in the ER with “problems” - alcohol, drug, domestic disturbance injuries, STD and HIV related - I’ve only seen a few White pregnant women with the same complaints.
Posted by Lizzie B at 11:57 PM on June 12
Does this need for “access to good prenatal care” mean these 13 year-old expectant mothers should have *free* malt liquor and menthol cigarettes? They’re drinking and smoking for two, after all. We’d really rather pay taxes to make sure a future serial rapist grows up big and strong than send our own daughter to college someday, or have another child she can play with.
I noticed when my own wife was pregnant with our daughter that “access to prenatal care” wasn’t a problem. She just quit drinking alcohol and coffee, and ate a bit more than normal. I was making us gazpacho in six-quart batches for quite a while, and she also craved reuben sandwiches and bacon-and-saurkraut pizza. The only real puzzle was how she managed without a c-section. I held her hand during delivery, but I couldn’t look.
Why is it the assumption that it is the responsibility of the white taxpayer to ensure children who will grow up to hate us anyway are well-nourished?
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 2:15 AM on June 13
Almost 20 years ago the late, great Murray Rothbard informed leftist buffoons of the real reasons blacks had more premature births and infant deaths than any other race.
http://mises.org/econsense/ch15.asp
Posted by Madison Grant at 2:18 AM on June 13
White ( especially Northern types) and East Asian babies always tend to be bigger than black babies. Maybe something to do with the cold climate their (Whites and East Asians)ancestors lived in.
Posted by at 11:08 AM on June 13
The black children catch up however. Ever notice how big black teenagers are?
Posted by at 3:32 PM on June 13
But they don’t worry that black babies mature a lot faster than ohter races do they? In every milestone, from lifting the head to grasping, rolling over, recognzing mommy, crawling, walking, feeding themselves black babies are a couple months ahead of other races. It is not unusual to see a tiny litle 8 month black baby walking all by himself.
And this continues until about 13 for girls and 17 for boys. Go into any 7th grade classroom and look at the boys. 80 pd, 4’8 white and asian boys and 5’5 130 pd black boys.
I taught a class of black fifth graders for a year. They were ten years old. I’m 5’4 andmost of the kids were as tall as I am.
And several were taller.
I’d say that maybe the prematurity and low birth weight, like reaching the other milestones earlier means that the black fetuses are simply mature and ready to be born at 8 months rather than 9 months.
Posted by at 8:37 PM on June 13
It is not just the drugs, alcholol and tobacco. The incrediblly high rate of genital infections has a lot to do with prematurity and low birth rates among blacks.
It is astonishin how many black women including 13 year old girls are afflicted with various STDs and infections. And so many of them have been infected since they were 13 or 14.
Posted by White nurse at 8:43 PM on June 13
3:32pm
I think Sharon has a point. As a teacher I have noticed that young White boys (at least for the past several years) seem to be larger than Black boys. I don’t think that Sharon anbd I are alone in what we are witnessing.
I also think that part of the reason for this is that Black women tend to have children at much younger ages, in many cases, as teenagers. These young women are still growing and their bodies have not fully matured and developed. In fact, a woman’s body does not fully develop unitl she is 20 or 21 years old.
Thus, it probably should be no surprise that these chldren are born with a lower than avewrgae birth weight and may grow up to be small adults.
Posted by Gene at 10:12 PM on June 13