The editorial; No Excuse for U.S. Infant Mortality Ranking by Katherine Boccieri is very similar to the way I think about this Infant mortality rank. We really should be among the higher rankings considering how developed our country is as far as technology and medical knowledge compared to other countries. I also agree that this is mostly our fault seeing as we spend so much as a country on healthcare but dont care enough to caution and educate infant parents. This is definately something we should work on as a country in order to improve this lack of informed and educated guardians of the infants.
On the other hand the increase in minorities and low income people with worse living conditions who account for most of the infant mortalities can't always have the best healthcare available which causes our decrease in infant mortality rank. Also while our minority population is increasing our rank, less developed countries are adopting our technology and medical knowledge in addition to their traditions which in a way could or is evening out the playing field in the infant mortality ranks. Regardless i completely agree that the United States Infant mortality rank should be alot better and improving, as well as educating and informing our infant's guardians or caretakers.
I agree that we are to blame in the high infant mortality rate. For such a civilized country as we claim to be, we are lacking in our ability to fund and alleviate the health care problem. Short staffing at hospitals and overcrowding in areas causes long wait times for ER visits, health care and health insurance is so expensive and jobs are hard to come by.
ReplyDeleteI am lucky that my employer offers low cost health insurance for me, but many people go without, which in effect, affects their children. Pregnant women go without pre-natal care, infants go without doctor visits when they are sick and women are under-educated in how to care for their new child. Not only that, but we have environmental factors to contend with. Pollution and availability of food, water and shelter become a factor in the lives of infants when their parents are unable to afford basic necessities for their children. Parents become stressed and can (most unfortunately) take their stress out on their young child, which could eventually lead to death.
I like the way Nate wrote his piece, although I think it could have had more substance to it. It addresses the main point of the article, but doesn't flesh out anything more. Good job though! :)