The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) announced Thursday that the 2022 Alabama infant mortality rate was 6.7 deaths per 1,000 live births. That is a substantial decrease from the 7.6 rate in 2021. Despite this improvement, Alabama’s infant mortality rate remains higher than the provisional U.S. rate of 5.6 for 2022. While Alabama’s rate improved, the national rate trended upward for the first time in 20 years. The substantial racial disparities in infant mortality got much worse in 2022, though.
Black mothers have the highest infant mortality rate in the state. The rate increased to 12.4 in 2022. That is up from 12.1 in 2021. White infant mortality rate, however, improved, dropping from 5.8 to 4.3 for White mothers.
“I am pleased that both the 2022 infant mortality rate and the 3-year infant mortality rate of 7.1 for 2020-2022 have decreased to the lowest rate ever,” said Alabama State Public Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris. “Births with maternal smoking also declined to the lowest ever recorded. The enduring disparity between birth outcomes for Black and white mothers, however, is disturbing. Despite advances in healthcare, the Black infant mortality rate is consistently twice the rate for white mothers. We must address the many factors that contribute to infant mortality, including poverty, educational levels, and access to medical care.”
Dr. Max Rogers is a State Committee of Public Health member.
“We are heartened to learn that Alabama’s infant mortality rate declined in 2022,” said Dr. Rogers. If this positive trend is to continue, we must follow evidence-based practices that have been shown to save lives, such as providing access to timely, adequate prenatal care.”
Dr. Eli Brown is another State Committee of Public Health member.
“As an obstetrician/gynecologist who focuses on women’s health and delivering babies, I am troubled that a major predictor of whether a mother will deliver a baby preterm is her race. Improving outcomes for Black infants, along with infants of all races and ethnicities, is imperative,” said Dr. Brown. “Births to mothers in hospitals which have a higher volume of deliveries improve the chance of healthy survival for high-risk infants.”
There were 58,162 births in Alabama in 2022, up slightly from 58,040 in 2021.
Just 391 babies died in 2022. This is down from 443 infant deaths in 2021.
The percentage of low-weight births decreased very slightly from 10.5 to 10.4. The percentage of births at less than 37 weeks of gestation also decreased from 13.1 to 12.8%. Low birth weight is defined as birth weight under 2,500 grams.
Providing adequate prenatal care remains a problem. The percentage of births with adequate prenatal care decreased from 74.8 percent to 74.4 percent, and the percentage of births with no prenatal care increased from 2.2 percent to 2.3 percent in 2022.
For births with no prenatal care, 60.0 percent were to white mothers, 21.2 percent were to Black mothers, and 18.8 were to mothers of other races.
Medicaid was the payment source for 77.3 percent of births without prenatal care, and the majority of births to mothers with no prenatal care, 54.3 percent, were to mothers aged 20 to 29.
Teenagers giving birth continue to decline; however, the percentage of births to white teen mothers increased from 5.4 to 5.5 percent. There was a decrease in births to Black teen mothers in 2022 from 8.5 to 7.2%.
The percentage of births with maternal smoking was 4.8 in 2022. That is a substantial decrease from 6.1 in 2021. That is the lowest percentage ever recorded in Alabama.
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