Nearly 10 percent of babies born in the U.S. are born prematurely and the rates of preterm birth are going up, a new government report shows. Also more low birth weight babies were born last year than in previous years. Nearly 10 percent of babies born in the U.S. are born prematurely and the rates of preterm birth are going up, a new government report shows. Also, more low birth weight babies were born last year than in previous years. With half of all U.S. births covered by Medicaid, these rates would get even worse if Congress cuts back on the program. Medicaid covers 75 million people, including nearly 36 million children. The United States has much worse rates of infant mortality, preterm birth and low birth weight babies than other industrialized countries. Wochit
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Startled by a sharp increase in the deaths of sleeping babies this year, public health officials in Hamilton County and Northern Kentucky are cautioning parents to take steps to guard infants in sleep.
Cradle Cincinnati, the nonprofit organization working to reduce infant mortality in Hamilton County, reports that 20 babies have died of sleep-related causes in 2019, twice the number the region would usually have through the first seven months of a year.
Cradle Cincinnati has found that since 2010, 141 babies have died from sleep-related causes in Hamilton County. In the same nine years, 60 children between birth and 19 years died in motor vehicle crashes.
The health commissioners for Cincinnati, Hamilton County and Northern Kentucky scheduled a 2 p.m. news conference Thursday to emphasize their concerns about the increase in deaths.
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Cradle Cincinnati’s tracking of the baby deaths found that 70% of all sleep-related deaths occurred in African American families, particularly in the 45225 ZIP code, which includes the neighborhoods of North Fairmount, South Fairmount, Roll Hill and Millvale.
In most cases, infant sleep-related deaths are preventable by following the ABCs of safe sleep: Babies sleep safest alone, on their backs, in cribs.
But parents get different messages about sleep practices for their infants.
Dee Keith disputes Cradle Cincinnati about the safe-sleep rules. Keith is an international board-certified lactation consultant and for more than 40 years has been involved in La Leche League, which promotes breast-feeding.
La Leche League encourages bed-sharing for infants who are exclusively breastfed as a way for nursing mothers to get some sleep in a child’s first months. Keith said she believes the 2019 increase in baby deaths may be the result of exposure to cigarette smoke.
“People have been sharing sleep with their infants since the beginning of time,” Keith said. “Only when things have changed environmentally for sleep that the increase in deaths occurred.”
La Leche League counsels that bed-sharing should only happen when the mother is smoke-free and sober, that the baby is on its back, unswaddled, on a flat surface such as a bed mattress, not on a couch.
“For many of us in the breastfeeding community, the scare tactics have backfired,” Keith said. “People are not honest with you about where their child is sleeping and feel judged if they tell you that the baby is in bed with them.”
The public health leaders are expected to announce a fresh effort to reduce the number of sleep-related deaths, including training community members to be “safe-sleep ambassadors,” amplifying the safe-sleep message through prenatal-care providers, birthing hospital staff and pediatric providers, launching a social media campaign, compiling a report on safe sleep, and releasing a video, developed by community mothers, at Final Friday OTR in August.
Qualifying families can receive a free portable crib through the Cincinnati Health Department by calling 211.
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