From the
Detroit News
Infant mortality is the No. 1 killer of Detroit children; violence is second. In 2011 alone, 130 of the 208 Detroit children who died that year had not yet marked their first birthday.
Violence, as in assault, is the
leading killer of black male's from age 15 up to 34. Between the ages of 35 and 44 violence (assault) is the 3rd leading cause of death. After that heart disease and HIV. Thus, when we look at it collectively, completely avoidable deaths (as opposed to accidents, which are by their nature unforeseen) are the leading causes of death for black folks, males in particular. Why do I say that?
he News found that Detroit has more babies born to moms who are under 20, like Gonville, and to single women, than in any other major American city. And often, those young women are not themselves in good health and otherwise ill-equipped to have babies...
Experts blame a confluence of health risks for Detroit’s high infant mortality rate, including inadequate health care, information, support and know-how by young mothers.
Eighty percent of new Detroit mothers are unmarried, compared with 42 percent of all Michigan moms, which may mean they have less support — financial as well as emotional — than women with husbands. Also, the city has more teen moms than any other in America: 18 percent.
Detroit is 87% black so there is no need to guess who that 80% represents. Remember: "I don't need no man"
I remember being told by a woman that by saying that the return of men into the household (particularly for AA families) would probably be a good idea, I was promoting "patriarchy". It seems to me that the statistics show that the "patriarchy" (whatever that is) had far better outcomes for African-American children. I'm certain that the "real" answer will be more state intervention.
We know that if we concentrate medical care on mothers and young babies (this) can have very dramatic impact on infant mortality rates, and so there are some really important pieces of work that are happening but they are not done at a big enough scale,” said McDonald, of the Skillman Foundation.
“We truly need to be very intentional about ... making sure that there is outreach to mothers so that they are not isolated, that there are services wrapped about them and their new babies to make sure that we’re very intentionally going after them. It’s infuriating, because we know we can change the trajectory of these numbers.”
Of course. State intervention.
