Infant Mortality Rates Higher in HamCo

September 02, 2010 10:15 PM

Jessica Oh

Christina Featherstone from the Hamilton County Health Department says the county has the second highest infant mortality rate in Tennessee, second to Shelby County. "Our infant mortality rate in Hamilton County is worse than most third world countries," Featherstone explains. (For a full detailed list of statistics given to us by the Health Department, scroll to the bottom of this page). According to stats, 97 out of every 1,000 babies are said to die within a year in Hamilton County. The area percentages are 3% higher than the national average. Knoxville has the state's third highest infant mortality rate.

Featherstone says issues like bad prenatal care, substance abuse, poverty and a lack in education add to the high numbers. In fact in Hamilton County, more than half of the infants who die a year are born to moms who smoked during pregnancy. However, pinpointing the problem proves to be difficult. "Infant mortality is a multi problem, multi faceted issue," explains Featherstone. "There is no one cause or no one reason." But not all infants who die result from parental issues. The Health Department says the causes of infant mortality rates are generally the same across the nation, it's just Hamilton County is seeing them in a higher amount.

The Rucker's twin girls were born prematurely. Now past their second birthday, Jaclyn and Stephen Rucker are just happy Annie and Kate are alive. They know so many other infants in Hamilton County die before their first birthdays. Jaclyn is a nurse and took good care of herself during her pregnancy but complications still arose. Doctors diagnosed her with a pregnancy disorder that caused her daughters to arrive 14 weeks early. "Annie weighed 1 pound 7 ounces and Kate weighed 1 pound 2 ounces," Mr. Rucker explains. He says people sometimes conceive the notion that his daughters were not taken care of during pregnancy because they were born prematurely. "A lot of times you kinda get the feeling that you fall into this category where you don't have an education or you smoked, or did something to cause it," Mr. Rucker says.

It was a close call for the Ruckers and one the health department hopes to prevent for other babies. "Even one loss is one too many so we're working to try to prevent those," says Featherstone.

The Health Department says they are working closely with several organizations and agencies to figure out the source of the high mortality rates. One organization, Girls Inc., pairs mentors with teens to educate them about making the right choices.

Infant Mortality Rates from the Hamilton County Health Department

(According to the Health Department, the latest available and correst statistics are from 2008.)

Infant Mortality Rate Comparisons:

(% for every 1,000 babies)

Shelby County 12.7%

Hamilton County 9.7%

Knox County 4.7%

State Average 8.3%

National Average 6.7%

*61% of infants who died within the first year were born to unmarried mothers.

*59% were born to mothers who moked during pregnancy.

*51% were born to mothers who received no or late prenatal care (after the 1st trimester).