In St. Louis, black babies are dying at three times the rate of white babies. The promise of a future for so many families in our region disappears with each death.
Yet, this gap has only widened – yes, widened – over the past 50 years. With some of the best health care in the country within our city’s blocks and hardworking, dedicated citizens collaborating to end infant mortality in general, why are black babies dying at a rate worse than decades ago?
The root causes of this infant mortality crisis are imbedded in the history of our city and the policies and systems that govern our region. Many policies on education, transportation, housing, and healthcare disproportionately advantage white families and disproportionately disadvantage black families. Data show that a consequence of these systemic biases is that many black mothers, no matter their economic status or background, have negative birth and pregnancy outcomes.
Historically, plans and programs to address infant mortality have focused solely on the fact that babies of all races are dying in St. Louis. While this universal approach has seen a decline in infant mortality overall, it does not address the causes of why black babies die more often than white babies. We can no longer use a one-size-fits-all approach. Focused and race-specific approaches are needed for our community.
Systems and markets must work equally well and behave in ways that support all families in order to assure that infant mortality rates will no longer be predicted by race. We need to better understand and address the ways that our institutions, policies, and systems create, contribute to, and perpetuate this current inequity.
While our nonprofit Generate Health STL has worked to decrease infant mortality for almost 20 years, the gap has widened on our watch. This is unacceptable. It is time to gather the community under one common agenda: that black babies and their mothers will not continue to die in our region because of the racial inequity in our systems and institutions.
Our efforts are now refocused around a new vision – one where there are zero racial disparities in infant mortality and maternal health. If we accomplish this vision, 81 more black babies each year will live past their first birthday. Generate Health wants to see how wonderful the promise of the future is with this new generation thriving and strengthening our community.
Rebeccah Bennett is chair of the Board of Directors of Generate Health STL.
