Short answers, pulled from the story.
Infant mortality is the death of an infant before their first birthday. Health organizations measure this phenomenon using the infant mortality rate, or IMR, which calculates deaths per 1,000 live births within that single year window.
Conditions related to preterm birth remain the leading cause of newborn deaths worldwide with premature birth occurring before 37 weeks of gestation. Bacterial infections of the bloodstream or brain coverings cause 25% of neonatal deaths worldwide while pneumonia alone accounts for 30% of childhood deaths.
African American mothers experience infant mortality at a rate 44% higher than average across the United States. Non-Hispanic Black women have an IMR of 11.3 while white women sit at 5.1 according to studies showing black college graduates often face lower survival rates than white women without high school diplomas.
Global infant mortality declined from 126 per 1,000 live births in 1960 to 57 in 2001. The global neonatal mortality rate decreased from 36.6 in 1990 to 18.0 in 2017 as part of broader progress in child survival rates.
Singapore recorded the lowest rate at 2.6 while Sierra Leone reached 185 child deaths per 1,000 births in 2011. The United States ranked 173rd internationally with a rate of 5.1 deaths per 1,000 live births as of 2024 despite spending billions on neonatal care.