A decade ago, one ZIP code in Akron had the highest infant mortality rate in the country.
The rest of Ohio wasn’t faring much better. Of every 1,000 babies born in the state, statistically 7.6 died — one of the highest rates in the nation.
Since then, Ohio policy makers have attempted to reduce infant deaths, even passing bipartisan legislation with that goal in mind.
But years later, more than seven of every 1,000 babies born in Ohio still die before their first birthday, according to a report from Groundwork Ohio, a nonprofit that advocates for the state’s young children.
“We have seen a reduction in infant mortality over time,” said Lynanne Gutierrez, the organization’s president and CEO. “But where there's not been progress is the closing of the disparity rate between white infant deaths and Black infant deaths.”
Ohio’s infant mortality disparity
In Ohio, Black children are more than twice as likely to die in infancy than white children — a gap that has widened over the past decade, as the state’s white infant mortality rate falls faster than the Black infant mortality rate.
In 2022, the most recent year CDC data is available, 5.7 white infants in Ohio died per every 1,000 births, while 13.4 Black infants died.
“One of the things that is driving this is the failure to name and recognize racism as a driving challenge of the infant mortality crisis,” Gutierrez said. “And if you don't name the problem, if you don't measure progress on that problem, then you're not going to solve that problem.”
She says her organization has held listening sessions with Black women, who list the stresses of not having access to transportation, child care, quality housing and secure access to food as reasons for why they might miss medical appointments.
“Racism, particularly in the health care system – among the way Black women are treated versus white women – are driving many of these outcomes at the systems level,” Gutierrez said.
Improving Ohio’s infant mortality rate
Ohio’s infant mortality rate remains among the highest in the nation — the state ranks 44th out of 50 states.
“Where other states have made progress, we have lagged,” Gutierrez said.
But some pockets of the state are making strides.
Gutierrez points to Hamilton County, where a group called Cradle Cincinnati has worked to successfully reduce the local Black infant mortality rate to the single digits.
One reason the group has been so successful, Gutierrez says, is they’ve directly engaged Black women.
“If you want to solve a problem that is impacting the citizens of Ohio, you have to actually talk to them to get their expertise to co-create the solution,” she said. “And so working directly with Black women, those most proximate to the Black infant mortality and Black maternal mortality crisis in this state, has generated solutions that can be implemented locally, that actually meet the needs of those women and those babies.”
It’s a step she hopes the rest of the state takes note of, as Ohio seeks to further reduce infant deaths in the coming decade.
“You can not do that just by focusing, or even unintentionally just impacting, white baby deaths,” she said.
