Black Newborns Are Twice as Likely to Die as White Infants, Even in Rich Countries
In many of the world’s most affluent countries, Black women are twice as likely as white women to have their babies die within four weeks of delivery, according to a new study that highlights persistent racial disparities in neonatal outcomes.The new analysis, published December 10 in the Lancet, examined data on almost 2.2 million pregnancies across 20 high-income and middle-income countries including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and several other European nations. Even after researchers accounted for a wide range of factors that can influence the risk of pregnancy and birth complications — such as age, previous pregnancies, obesity, and education levels — Black women and their infants still fared much worse.Compared with white women, the study showed, Black mothers were more than twice as likely to have stillborn…