Why are our babies dying? : pregnancy, birth, and death in America / Sandra D. Lane.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lane, Sandra Dianne, 1951-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Infants--Mortality--United States.

Infants.

Infants--Mortality.

United States.

Social problems--United States.

Social problems.

Physical Description:

xvi, 239 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Boulder : Paradigm Publishers, [2008]

Summary:

Syracuse, New York, in the late 1980s led U.S. cities in African American infant deaths. Even today, in this "all American city," infants of color die more than two times as often as white babies. Infant mortality is too often addressed as if it were an isolated problem, rather than part of a systemic and repeating pattern of embedded racism and structural violence. The clearing of whole neighborhoods during urban renewal, coupled with the collapse of industry, brought unintended consequences. Dilapidated rental housing, abandoned houses, and empty lots provide the conditions for lead poisoning, gonorrhea, and illicit drug use. Inadequate education, unemployment, and racially biased arrest and sentencing underpin the epidemic of African American male incarceration. Inmate fathers cannot provide financial support and only limited emotional support during collect calls from jail or prison. Supermarkets fled the inner city, where corner stores sell cigarettes, malt liquor, lottery tickets, and drug paraphernalia in place of healthy food. The stories and the data in this book show that low birth weight, premature birth, and infant death are a part of life patterns resulting from systemic discrimination increasing risk over a lifetime and, in some cases, reaching the next generation.

Contents:

Introduction

Lots of trouble out here

Math and biology

Risk in social context

Babies having babies

Health literacy

Missing fathers

Food is just decoration

Bibliography

Index

About the author.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 202-230) and index.

ISBN:

9781594514401

1594514402

9781594514418

1594514410

OCLC:

181072604