The Baltimore Sun: OPINION: The shame of infant mortality

The state’s reported progress in reducing infant mortality is to be cheered, but the fact that infant mortality increased slightly for African-Americans in 2009, and that a smaller percentage of black women received prenatal care that year, should be deeply troubling to public health officials.

Persistent racial and class disparities in access to health care are the principal reasons Maryland’s infant mortality rate — the number of infant deaths per thousand live births has remained disturbingly high over the years. And the tragedy is that most of these deaths are preventable.