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Purpose of the Infant Mortality Commission
The purpose of the Commission is to review the history of infant mortality rate analysis and interpretation, redefine the problem, examine basic assumptions, and imagine new possibilities for action. Specifically, the Commission will focus on the new and promising research on the lack of social support and presence of unmitigated stress - relationality - as potentially contributing factors in preterm births and infant mortality rates. The intentional focus on relationality has potential implications for improved pregnancy outcomes, economic prosperity, and meaningful political participation for all women and women of color in particular.
The Courage To Love: Implications for Care, Research, and Public Policy to Reduce Infant Mortality Rates Commission
The infant mortality rate in the U.S. continues to be high relative to rates in other economically developed countries. From 2001 to 2002, our infant mortality rate increased for the first time in decades. Compounding this issue is the persistent disparity in our infant mortality rates, such that twice as many black babies as white babies die in infancy.
Our nation’s response to the tragedy of infant deaths depends on how we define the problem. The way in which we define the problem is determined more or less consciously, by our concepts of the nature of humanity, or legitimate sources of knowledge, and of the ideal structure of society. Given the intransigence of the problem, this National Commission will redefine the problem, examine basic assumptions, and explore new possibilities of action.
Specifically, there is new and promising research on the lack of social support and presence of unmitigated stress as potentially contributing factors to pre-term births and infant mortality rates. However unconscious or coincidental, these studies are emerging at a time when philosophers, theologians, and scientists are beginning to consider relationality and complexity as substantive of human nature, as constitutive of what it means to be human.
The Commission will address the question: If relationships are primary, and all else is derivative, what then are the implications for care, research, and public policy to reduce infant mortality.
The purpose of the Commission is to review the history of infant mortality rate analysis and interpretation, redefine the problem, examine basic assumptions, and imagine new possibilities for action. Specifically, the Commission will focus on the new and promising research on the lack of social support and presence of unmitigated stress - relationality - as potentially contributing factors in preterm births and infant mortality rates. The intentional focus on relationality has potential implications for improved pregnancy outcomes, economic prosperity, and meaningful political participation for all women and women of color in particular.
The Courage To Love: Implications for Care, Research, and Public Policy to Reduce Infant Mortality Rates Commission
The infant mortality rate in the U.S. continues to be high relative to rates in other economically developed countries. From 2001 to 2002, our infant mortality rate increased for the first time in decades. Compounding this issue is the persistent disparity in our infant mortality rates, such that twice as many black babies as white babies die in infancy.
Our nation’s response to the tragedy of infant deaths depends on how we define the problem. The way in which we define the problem is determined more or less consciously, by our concepts of the nature of humanity, or legitimate sources of knowledge, and of the ideal structure of society. Given the intransigence of the problem, this National Commission will redefine the problem, examine basic assumptions, and explore new possibilities of action.
Specifically, there is new and promising research on the lack of social support and presence of unmitigated stress as potentially contributing factors to pre-term births and infant mortality rates. However unconscious or coincidental, these studies are emerging at a time when philosophers, theologians, and scientists are beginning to consider relationality and complexity as substantive of human nature, as constitutive of what it means to be human.
The Commission will address the question: If relationships are primary, and all else is derivative, what then are the implications for care, research, and public policy to reduce infant mortality.