A socio-medical study of infant mortality among disadvantaged blacks.

This report profiles the woman at highest risk of a low birthweight delivery and infant death, in a generally disadvantaged, Black population in a major northeastern city which maintains one of the highest infant mortality rates in the nation. It discusses the existence of a very high risk subpopulation which contributes disproportionately and repeatedly to the infant and perinatal death statistics. If adequately identified, these women can be subject to intervention programs. Results show that within an inner-city Black population, where educational levels are relatively low and much of the reproductive segment is young and unmarried, the standard identification criteria of age, education, and marital status do not vary with poor pregnancy outcome. Furthermore, certain factors associated stereotypically with inner city lifestyle, such as drug abuse and venereal disease, also fail to distinguish women having normal and very low birthweight infants. Instead, alcoholism, smoking, low maternal weight at delivery, hypertension history, migrant status, ineffective contraception, prenatal care, violence, and relatively poor psychological adjustments and social support systems distinguish the study samples.