Infant mortality rate is a statistic that simply tracks how many infants pass away per every 1,000 successful births. This can be a reflection of a lot of things, including the healthcare system in the state itself and the type of access that individuals in that state have to the care that they need.
Generally speaking, a higher infant mortality rate often means that people are not getting the right type of medical care for various reasons. It may be unaffordable, for instance, or doctors and nurses may be making mistakes in the hospital. It’s important for prospective parents to consider this when determining what to do. So where does New Mexico rank in the United States?
New Mexico is 28th out of 50
New Mexico actually ranks right near the middle, the 28th state out of 50. This does put it just slightly into the top half of states with lower infant mortality rates. The mortality rate was 5.3 deaths for every thousand live births. Over the course of 2020 – the year that was studied – there were 116 total infant deaths in the state.
This is certainly better than somewhere like Mississippi, which ranks at the very top, with the highest infant mortality rate of 8.12 deaths per 1,000 births. But it also shows that New Mexico has a lot of work to do to get to a level like California, which has an infant mortality rate of just 3.92. There were far more infant deaths in California, at 1,648, but that’s just due to the population of the state itself. This illustrates why it is important to look at the rates instead of the overall statistics when considering safety.
If your child has been injured by a doctor or even tragically passed away during birth, make sure that you know about all of your legal options.