This week, The Red & Black reported that Georgia ranked No. 44 on WalletHub’s list of the 2014 Best and Worse States to Have a Baby. When broken down, the state ranked No. 45 for air pollution, No. 46 for low birth weight and No. 50 for maternal mortality rates.

Trina Salm Ward, an assistant professor at the UGA School of Social Work and College of Public Health, commented on the report, which analyzed data taken from 2010-2012 to reveal  “that Georgia had 28.8 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births, compared to the U.S. average of 16.7 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births.”

“The white infant mortality rate was 5.4 [percent], the Hispanic rate was 4 [percent] and the African-American rate was 10.7 [percent],” Ward said. “When looking at maternal mortality, we see similar gaps in performance. Between 2010-2012, the maternal mortality rate was 11.4 deaths per 100,000 live births compared to 47.5 for African Americans. These racial and ethnic disparities exist across the U.S., and reflect some of the structural and systemic effects of racism in our country, as well as other social determinants of health.”

Read the entire article at The Red & Black.

Posted September 30, 2014.