More than seven out of 1,000 babies born in Lucas County die before their first birthday. If the baby is African-American, its chances are even worse — 14.2 out of 1,000 die before the age of 1.
“I read somewhere that the way to determine the health of a community is by the way it takes care of its babies,” Celeste Smith, community and minority health supervisor at the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department, told The Blade’s editorial board. “We are not a very healthy community.”
No, we are not. And that is repeatedly borne out in high obesity, diabetes, and inactivity statistics. An unhealthy mother often gives birth to an unhealthy, premature baby. A premature baby is at the greatest risk of an early death.
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We are also impoverished. Toledo was recently labeled the fifth-most distressed big city in the United States by a Washington think tank. People need jobs to get good health insurance, healthy food, a reason to get up in the morning.
The infant mortality rate for Lucas County in 2015 was 6.3, on par with some third-world countries, and it shot up to 7.3 in 2016, slightly lower than Ohio’s 7.4, which is no consolation.
Death rates for black babies fell a full point in 2016, but that is small cause for celebration. The rate of 14.2 is still tragic and inexcusable in comparison to the rates of around 2.0 in Scandinavian countries and Japan.
Everyone knows that an opioid epidemic is ravaging our area and country. A baby almost died last week when he ingested drugs. But people are not tuned in to an epidemic that is snuffing out life almost before it begins.
Our infant morality rate, both in Ohio and Lucas County, is unconscionable and unacceptable. We have to fix this.
First Published October 16, 2017, 11:30 a.m.
