We’ve reached a point in the development of medical technology and tactics that infants should almost always survive childbirth. Infant mortality rates should be incredibly low.
To some degree, they are. If you compare the risks a child faces today to the risks he or she faced 300 years ago, the difference is dramatic. It’s clear that advances in the medical field have made a massive difference over the years.
That said, the rates are clearly too high in the United States. If you look at the average mortality rates in comparable countries, you’ll find that the rate in the United States is about 71% higher.
You should take this with a slight grain of salt. Some experts point out that different countries use different definitions and reporting methods. They think that this explains some of the difference, with one study claiming that about 34% of that difference may be due to nothing but differences in data collection.
That said, even these reports do not explain away all of the difference, so the rates remain higher in the U.S. than in many other first-world countries with a high level of medical technology.
Why is this? Are American doctors making critical mistakes? What prevents infants from living as often here as they would if they were born overseas?
These are important questions to ask, especially if you have lost a child and you think that medical malpractice may have played a role. This is a very trying time for you and your family, and you need to know all of the legal options you have.