Ohio has ranked near the bottom of all the states when it comes to the number of babies who die in their first year of life. The state’s infant mortality rate is dropping, but there’s still a big racial gap.
Ohio Department of Health medical director Mark Hurst said in the state's latest report on infant mortality, the number in 2018 dropped 4 percent from the year before.
"This decrease was due to a substantial drop in black infant mortality rate for the first time in five years," said Hurst.
But black infants are still up to three times as likely to die as white infants. Hurst said that shows that while the numbers are improving, there's still a lot of work to do.
Hurst said fewer babies died from being born too early, but "prematurity-related conditions remain the leading cause of infant death in Ohio, comprising almost one-third of deaths.”
Of the other main causes of death, one in five infants had fatal birth defects, 10 percent died from external injuries and 8 percent from sudden infant death syndrome.
Two-thirds of all infant deaths were in the state’s nine most populous counties.
Communities have launched programs to tackle infant mortality, including First Year Cleveland, Cradle Cincinnati and CelebrateOne in Franklin County.
