Priority 1 – Infant Mortality – Virginia’s Plan For Well-Being

Infant mortality is a hallmark of overall health status of a population, which is why it has remained an objective of Healthy People 2030 and the Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant.

In 2020, 542 infants died before their first birthday in Virginia, making the overall infant mortality rate across all races 5.7 per 1,000 live births. This is a decline from an infant mortality rate of 5.9 in 2019. Since 2011, the overall infant mortality numbers have remained relatively constant, with a slight downward trend in recent years. However, this rate varies by race and ethnicity. For example, in 2020 the infant mortality rate among the non-Hispanic White population was 4.4, while the rate among non-Hispanic Black infants was 10.6. This disparity in infant mortality rates shows that Black infants were 2.4 times more likely to experience mortality than their white counterparts. To eliminate this disparity, the disparity ratio must be reduced to 1.0.

Objective 1: By 2029, decrease the percentage of infants born preterm from the baseline of 9.9% to below the HP2030 target of 9.4%.

Objective 2: By 2029, reduce the Black-White infant mortality disparity ratio from the baseline of 2.4 to 1.0.

Objective 3: By 2029, decrease the rate of babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) among birth hospitalizations by 20% (from the baseline of 5.8 to 4.64 per 1,000 birth hospitalizations).

Objective 4: By 2027, increase the percent of mothers who breastfed across the commonwealth by 10% with targeted strategies for Black and hispanic infants.

Objective 5: By 2029, reduce the maternal mortality Black-White disparity ratio from the baseline of 2.1 to 1.0.

Infant Mortality

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