Why Are Our Babies Dying?: Pregnancy, Birth, and Death in America

by Lane,Sandra

• ISBN13: 9781594514418
• ISBN10: 1594514410
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2008-07-30
• Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS

Summary

Syracuse, New York, in the late 1980s led U.S. cities in African American infant deaths. Even today, in this 'œall 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. Watch the Podcast of Sandy Lane's interview at The University at Buffalo Law School: Sandy Lane's Interview

Author Biography

Sandra D. Lane is Chair of Health and Wellness and Professor of Social Work and Anthropology at Syracuse University, as well as Research Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at SUNY Upstate Medical University

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Lots of Trouble Out Here	p. 31
Math and Biology	p. 62
Risk in Social Context	p. 82
Babies Having Babies	p. 112
Health Literacy	p. 134
Missing Fathers	p. 149
Food Is Just Decoration	p. 176
Plenty Blame to Go Around	p. 197
Bibliography	p. 202
Index	p. 231
About the Author	p. 239
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