Mississippi Today
Rural Delta counties have highest infant mortality rates in state, new report shows
Every region in Mississippi ranked higher in infant mortality than the national average of 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the state‘s 2021 Mississippi Infant Mortality Report released last week.
This report comes one month after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing that Mississippi’s infant mortality rate reached a five-year high while the national rate remained relatively stable from 2020 to 2021. That report also showed that the state continues to lead the nation in babies who die before their first birthday.
In 2021, 327 Mississippi babies died before the age of one, according to the state’s report.ย
The leading causes of infant death in Mississippi are prematurity, low birthweight, birth defects and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Babies whose deaths were caused by SIDS also reached a 10-year high in Mississippi in 2021, the report said.ย
โMississippi also has the highest premature birth rate in the nation, and this drives our high infant mortality rate,โ said Dr. Anita Henderson, a pediatrician and past president of the Mississippi chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. โWe encourage all moms to get in to see their OBs in their first trimester for optimal prenatal care.โ
While deliveries of babies with very low birthweight (defined as less than 3.3 pounds) decreased from 2020 to 2021, most infant deaths in the state still occurred in infants born with very low birthweight, according to the report. The statistic is more dire for Black babies, who saw three times as many deaths due to prematurity and very low birthweight than their white counterparts in 2021.
Henderson said lack of access to health care in Mississippi is contributing to high rates of prematurity and infant mortality.
โPresumptive eligibility for moms on Medicaid would facilitate timely access to prenatal care for that critical, first trimester OB visit. Over half of the counties in Mississippi do not have an OB or a delivering hospital,โ she said.
Pregnancy presumptive eligibility, which Mississippi does not have, allows women to receive care during pregnancy, even if they’re not on Medicaid. Providers can enroll their pregnant patients and start billing Medicaid, which reimburses them without delays or questions.
The new report also detailed each county’s average infant mortality rate over a 10-year period, showing that only two counties โ Rankin and Smith โ met the national recommendation of no more than five infant deaths per 1,000 live births. The other 80 counties were above that recommendation, with 31 counties seeing at least twice the recommended rate.
The three counties with the highest 10-year averages were rural counties in the Delta. Issaquena County had the highest rate in the state at 18.7 infant deaths per 1,000 births. Humphreys and Quitman counties were the other two, with rates of 16.9 and 15.8, respectively.
Following the closure of the only neonatal intensive care unit in the Delta, in addition to a labor and delivery unit at a Greenwood hospital, State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney announced at a July Board of Health meeting a proposal for an โOB system of care,โ which would model itself after other systems of care in Mississippi.
โWe’re losing too many babies in transfer,โ Edney recently said to a legislative committee. The proposed system would evacuate high-risk pregnant women in rural areas to either Children’s of Mississippi in Jackson or out of state.
When asked for updates about how the system of care would work, including what states Mississippi would model its system on, officials with the Mississippi Department of Health did not respond by the time of publication.ย ย
Edney was also not available to comment on the latest report, though he said in September the numbers are โextremely concerning.โย ย
Infant morbidity, which the report defines as โany condition that adversely impacts the ability of newborns to survive and thrive,โ highlights numerous racial and socioeconomic disparities.
Twice as many Black women as white women in Mississippi are diagnosed with preexisting hypertension, one of the leading causes of infant and maternal morbidity and mortality.
The report referenced a study from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that found that pregnant women on Medicaid have an increased risk of complications and poor fetal outcomes when compared to women on private insurance. That is significant in Mississippi, where, according to the report, โan estimated 22,633 deliveries are from women who have Medicaid insuranceโย โ nearly two-thirds of the 35,156 live births that occurred in the state in 2021.ย
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1870
Oct. 30, 1870
Three Black men challenged the racist system of segregation in Louisville, Kentucky. They paid their fares and sat up front on a trolley โ only to be challenged by the driver and a white passenger.
Robert Fox, an elderly mortician, said he and his business partners had the same right to ride as whites. The driver alerted his central office, and soon a group of white drivers dragged them off the trolley, kicking them and shouting racial slurs. Police arrested the trio, whose lawyer argued that their disorderly conduct arrests had taken place because of their race.
โThey are good citizens,โ their lawyer said, โand they ask for simple justice and nothing more.โ
The judge fined the trio $5, and Black passengers boycotted the trolley. Fox sued the Central Passenger Railroad Company, which ruled in his favor and awarded him $15. Inspired by the victory, Black passengers began staging โride-insโ across the city. The protests led to clashes on the city streets, and Louisville’s mayor intervened. Streetcar companies agreed to desegregate the trolleys, and the Black citizens rejoiced. They had really won.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Will Mississippi schools join the cellphone ban bandwagon?
Many state lawmakers want to take action on teen mental health and say they believe restricting cellphone use in schools is a solution. But opinions and research on the topic are mixed.
Among those who oppose a full ban: Two high school students from opposite ends of the state.
Kate Riddle, a senior from Lafayette County School District, told Mississippi Today that her social media experience has always been โpositive and uplifting.โ
โSocial media can be a positive or negative tool; it just depends on how you use it,โ she said.
Riddle said she uses it for communication, news and entertainment.
Crosby Parker, a junior from the Gulfport School District, also said social media hasn’t had a โtangible impactโ on his mental health and that he uses it on a โneed-to basisโ to talk to friends.
Neither supports a full cellphone ban. But Riddle acknowledged that โphones are an immense problem in school districts and finding a way to navigate the challenges that they will bring in the coming years is vital to the success of all,โ
Riddle supports a phone ban for elementary school students, but not necessarily for older students. She suggested schools restrict cellphone use without banning phones entirely, such as taking them up before class.
Parker supports his school’s current policy, where students can use their phones anywhere except during class.
โThis allows students to stay in communication with their family throughout the day, and it limits the phones to any time that doesn’t distract others from learning,โ he said.
Earlier this month, the state youth mental health task force released their recommendations. Among them was that all school districts implement policies on cellphones and social media use in classrooms.
At the same time, Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, a task force member, is drafting a bill to ban cellphones in schools statewide with possibly leaving it up to each of the state’s 144 school districts to determine how to do that..
โAs we recognize the importance of technology, we also have to recognize the importance of our children’s health, which includes mental health,โ he said.
Cellphones are ubiquitous in American culture. Pew Research Center found that 95% of American teenagers between 13 and 17 have a smartphone and 23% reported using social media for four or more hours a day.
Many educators, parents and researchers fear phones are driving the nation’s youth mental health crisis with 72% of high school teachers telling the Pew Research Center in June that they think cellphones are a major problem in classrooms.
Jonathan Haidt’s โThe Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illnessโ describes how teen mental health has declined sharply since 2010. In 2020, teen suicide rates increased 91% for boys and 167% for girls. The percent of teens who reported having at least one episode of major depression increased 145% for girls and 161% for boys. Haidt and many other researchers attribute this decline to the rise of social media and cellphone use.
Last year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a report warning about how social media harms teen mental health, citing statistics that 46% of teens said social media makes them feel worse about their body image and 64% said they were โoftenโ or โsometimesโ exposed to hate content.
Creekmore said Haidt’s book and the surgeon general’s report are major influences for his bill.
According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 68% of American adults support banning cellphones from middle and high school classrooms. Eight states have passed bans and/or restrictions on cellphones in schools so far.
In Mississippi this year, Marshall County School District and Greenwood School District introduced bans on cellphone use during school hours.
โVast research connects the decline in mental health among children and adolescents in part to the near constant use of smartphones and social media,โ Lt Gov Delbert Hosemann said in a statement to Mississippi Today.
Touching on the concerns about school safety in the wake of multiple school shootings, he said, โSchool safety and ensuring parents can stay connected with their children are also important concerns. We are confident local districts can negotiate these competing concerns and implement policies protecting instructional time from distraction.โ
Cellphone bans have their drawbacks. They can be difficult to enforce, and some parents want to be able to reach their children for pick-ups and emergencies. However, the National School Safety and Security Services says that using a phone during an emergency can actually cause more trouble by distracting people, overloading cellphone systems, disrupting evacuation efforts and more.
The research on cellphone use and its impact on teens is more mixed. There are several places where the research is lacking, including what types of content cause the most harm and how exactly social media creates/exacerbates mental health problems.
The National Academy of Sciences‘ report on the topic pointed out the positives to using social media, such as communication, learning and connection. The surgeon general’s report also found that 58% of teens said that social media made them feel more accepted.
Lynda Stewart, a mental health counselor and director of the Division of Children and Youth Services at Mississippi’s Department of Mental Health, is also part of the state task force. While she said she has no opinion on cellphone bans, she pointed out that they’re not the only factors harming youth mental health.
โAdolescence is a very, very difficult time. It’s a time when children are growing and changing,โ she said.
Stewart cited the pandemic and academic and social pressures as major problems. Young people are also more aware about mental health and are less afraid to reach out for help than previous generations.
โOne thing we know about our youth today is that they’re strong and they’re brave,โ she said, โand they’re more willing than any other generation of youth to let somebody know when they’re not okay.โ
The task force made several recommendations, including more schools partnering with community health centers, more mental health professionals on school staff and universal mental health screenings for students.
Stewart advised parents to check in with their kids daily and look out for behavioral red flags. This includes them always being alone, dropping hobbies they used to love, getting bad grades, and drastic changes in their style and friend groups.
Mental Health Mississippi provides information on mental health providers in the state. For mental health crises, dial the national suicide and crisis line at 988. You can also dial the DMH helpline at 1-877-210-8513 for help and information about mental health services.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1869
Oct. 29, 1869
Klansmen kidnapped and savagely beat Georgia legislator Abram Colby, leaving him for dead.
Freed 15 years before emancipation, he became an early organizer of Black Americans. A Radical Republican, he represented Greene County in 1865 at a convention for freed African Americans and was elected to the Georgia Legislature a year later.
In 1869, the Ku Klux Klan offered him a $7,500 bribe to not run for re-election, but he refused. โI told them that I would not do it if they would give me all the county was worth,โ he recalled.
These Klansmen were hardly impoverished white men, he said. โSome are first-class men in our town. One is a lawyer, one a doctor, and some are farmers.โ
During his whipping, they asked him, โDo you think you will ever vote another damned Radical ticket?โ When he answered yes, the beating became even more severe.
โThey set in and whipped me a thousand licks more, with sticks and straps that had buckles on the ends of them,โ he recalled. Although he survived, he was unable to work or hold office. Three years later, he testified before a joint House and Senate committee investigating reports of Southern violence, detailing what had happened.
โThe worst thing was my mother, wife and daughter were in the room when they came,โ he recalled. โMy little daughter begged them not to carry me away. They drew up a gun and actually frightened her to death. She never got over it until she died. That was the part that grieves me the most.โ
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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