Posted on 11/26/2009 8:19:09 PM PST by neverdem
MADISON, Wis. — Seven and a half months into Ta-Shai Pendleton’s first pregnancy, her child was stillborn. Then in early 2008, she bore a daughter prematurely.
Soon after, Ms. Pendleton moved from a community in Racine that was thick with poverty to a better neighborhood in Madison. Here, for the first time, she had a full-term pregnancy...
--snip--
The lives and pregnancies of black mothers like Ms. Pendleton, 21, are now the subject of intense study as researchers confront one of the country’s most intractable health problems: the large racial gap in infant deaths, primarily due to a higher incidence among blacks of very premature births.
Here in Dane County, Wis., which includes Madison, the implausible has happened: the rate of infant deaths among blacks plummeted between the 1990s and the current decade, from an average of 19 deaths per thousand births to, in recent years, fewer than 5.
The steep decline, reaching parity with whites, is particularly intriguing, experts say, because obstetrical services for low-income women in the county have not changed that much...
--snip--
Nationwide for 2007, according to the latest federal data, infant mortality was 6 per 1,000 for whites and 13 for blacks.
“This kind of dramatic elimination of the black-white gap in a short period has never been seen,” Dr. Philip M. Farrell, professor of pediatrics and former...
--snip--
“We don’t have a medical model to explain it,” Dr. Farrell added, explaining that no significant changes had occurred in the extent of prenatal care or in medical technology...
--snip--
Over the summer she started receiving monthly visits from Laura Berger, a county nurse, who put her in touch with a dentist. That was not just a matter of comfort; periodontal disease elevates the risk of premature birth, increasing the levels of a labor-inducing chemical...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
How about some microbes in unfortunate anatomical locations?
No lottery tickets, 40 ounce malt liquor, ACORN criminals, rap music, $300 sneakers, marijuana & crack, mandatory Obama worship in the “schools,” fried pork rinds, menthol cigartettes... etc.
Ghetto Black Culture is grossly pathological.
“Ta-Shai”.. lol.
That’s gonna leave a mark. :)
Black babies weigh less, on average, than white, Hispanic, or Asian babies. Given the relationship between birth weight and infant mortality, there really isnt much mystery here that I can see.
The MSM (for want of a better descriptor at this moment), including local TV news departments, tend strongly to present families as consisting solely of a mother and her children, even if there does exist a supportive resident husband and father. Whether or not said mother is married also tends to be an overlooked element.
Look out! The robots are coming to take your job away
Nano-labels allow stem cell imaging
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Now, let’s not judge...It’s all good...
And then it suggests the reason is better dental care. ???
Free government cheese.
Better hospitals and welfare in MadCity...have you ever been to Racine?
I do wonder about the father’s role in pregnancy.
When I became pregnant with my first, I quit working. My husband was the breadwinner and I was allowed to sew the layette, cross-stitch some pieces for the babies room and focus on my own nutrition. I had a perfect pregnancy and a beautiful, full-term daughter.
When I became pregnant with my second, I had some problems. Blood clots kept forming behind the placenta and it would get partially worked away from the wall. I’d rest for a couple of weeks, the clot would dissolve and the placenta would repair itself. This happened throughout the pregnancy.
I was allowed to rest. My infant daughter was taken care of by neighbors and daycare and my husband picked up the house-work and childcare in the evenings. We ended up with a healthy, *FAT* baby boy.
If I hadn’t been married, had I been forced to work, I’m convinced that my son wouldn’t have made it. I know that a loving, supportive husband contributed to my children’s births.
I don’t think that it would’ve been the same even had my mother taken care of me as well as my husband did. There’s something mentally comforting about having a husband that can’t be replaced. Knowing that my children and I were going to be supported throughout their childhood was a good feeling. Being lovingly cuddled by a big, warm, protective *man* is a feeling like no other. Nobody but a husband can make a woman feel so safe and loved. That *has* to contribute to a relaxed and happy mama which makes for a better pregnancy.
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