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Infant Mortality
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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 preterm
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. |
