Virginia’s infant mortality rate has dropped to historic lows, but it’s still worse than the national average.
Gov. Tim Kaine said Tuesday that the state’s 2008 rate dropped to 6.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, down from 7.7 the year before. That brings the state much closer to the national average, which the CIA World Factbook projects will be 6.26 in 2009.
But Virginia still lags nearly 30 states with lower rates.
“We still have a long way to go,” said Phil Giaramita, spokesman for Virginia’s health commissioner. “In Virginia last year, more babies died in their first year of life — over 800 infants — than kids under 18 that died from homicide, suicide” or other related causes, he said.
Dying young
» The number of infant deaths per 1,000 births:
Virginia: 6.7 (2008)
National average: 6.26 (2009, estimated)
Maryland: 7.9 (2006)
District: 11.3 (2006)
And dead babies don’t make front page news. “Infant mortality doesn’t get a lot of publicity and attention,” he said. “The public would be stunned to hear that this many children die before they are even a year old.”
About 28,000 babies die every year in the U.S. before their first birthdays, according to the Census Bureau.
Kaine called Virginia’s progress a “major milestone” but said the rates were still too high.
“We all know that there is still work to be done,” Kaine said.
Maryland’s and the District’s rates are much higher than Virginia’s. In 2006, the last year for which census data are available for both jurisdictions, 7.9 infants died per 1,000 live births in Maryland, compared with 11.3 in D.C.
Virginia has cut down on infant death rates primarily through programs promoting prenatal care, Kaine said.
One such program, formed by state Health Commissioner Karen Remley, employs retail store owners, barbershops and even AARP programs to get the word out on keeping babies healthy.
“The key is making this a community-wide campaign,” said Giaramita, who works with the commissioner’s Working Group on Infant Mortality. “It isn’t just one program or one organization by itself that can gain significant improvement in reducing infant death rates.”
He said most of his work involved word of mouth.
“We’ve known for years what you need to do to reduce rates. The challenge is to get people to believe those messages and then to change their behavior,” he said. “What the real challenge now is maintaining momentum and keeping it going from here.”
