An annual report from the March of Dimes points to minor improvements in infant and maternal health outcomes.
Nationally, the maternal mortality rate returned to pre-pandemic rates but the infant mortality rate showed no change from the previous year. There were five infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2024 in the United States.
In the new report, Georgia gets a failing grade for its pre-term birth rate, or, the rate of babies born too early. Pre-term birth is one of the leading causes of infant mortality. Nearly 12% of births in Georgia according to the national health data analyzed by the March of Dimes, are pre-term.
Georgia’s F grade is credited in part to a lack of access to health care that could help new moms spot issues with their own health as well as their baby’s ahead of time.
Michael Warren is Chief Medical and Health Officer for the March of Dimes.
“When women don’t have access to care, at different points in their lives, they’re missing out on those opportunities for routine preventive visits, for identifying risk factors,” Warren said. “Missing out immunizations that can protect them and their future babies from serious illnesses.”
In Georgia, new mothers are eligible for Medicaid coverage up to a year postpartum. Parents of children under 6 years old are also eligible for the state’s Pathways to Coverage program without being subject to additional work requirements. Warren said coverage even earlier than pregnancy or childbirth could help bring down maternal and infant mortality rates in Georgia, where both are above the national average.
The March of Dimes report considers the prevalance of certain health conditions that make pre-term birth more common, such as hypertension in pregnancy and smoking. It also breaks down pre-term birth and infant mortality by race and ethnicity. In Georgia, pregnant people of color die at more than double the rate compared to white people, and the same trend applies to infant mortality rates when considering maternal race and ethnicity.
A report published this year from the Georgia-based organization Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies shows additional disparities in infant health outcomes depending on where people live in the state. Department of Public Health data from 2023 shows higher rates of infant mortality in Georgia’s southern, central and southwestern counties.
Disparities across physical location, race, and income are just a part of the picture, said Warren, and take into account what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls social determinants of health.
“And really, as we think about tackling these crises, we have to make sure we always think about also not just reducing the overall number, but eliminating the disparities as well,” he said.
Georgia lawmakers have invested in maternal home visiting programs run by local public health departments, aimed at identifying people with high-risk pregnancies who could benefit from early intervention. Last legislative session, the deaths of several named Black women in Georgia, including Candi Miller and Amber Nicole Thurman, reginited conversations around how delays in access to care can drive disparities in maternal mortality. Georgia’s rate ranks it among the worst in the country.
This story comes to The Current GA through a reporting partnership with GPB News, a non-profit newsroom covering the state of Georgia.
GPB’s Health Reporting is supported by Georgia Health Initiative, a non-partisan, private foundation advancing innovative ideas to help improve the health of Georgians. Learn more at georgiahealthinitiative.org