To be angry that the fact that infant mortality is rising, is not front page news?

[neonyellowshoes]

www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2258.full

It has been reported in a couple of papers, but why isn't this shocking the nation for want of a better term?

BMJ link above as fairly acceptable to all I'd imagine.

This leaves utterly cold.

Published 11 May 2017. That’s why it isn’t being covered today.

Isn’t it largely to do with very premature babies not surviving? There was a thread about this a couple of weeks ago.

Apologies:

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/childhoodinfantandperinatalmortalityinenglandandwales/2016

Above link is to data released 14th March 2018.

1. Statistician’s comment

“In 2016, there were small increases in both the infant (3.8 deaths per 1,000 live births) and neonatal (2.7 deaths per 1,000 live births) mortality rates in England and Wales from 2015 but these rates remain low in historical terms (based on death occurrences). These increases can be attributed to many risk factors, such as the mother’s country of birth, mother’s age at birth of child, birthweight and the parents’ socioeconomic status.”

yOu're unreasonable because there is happily a steady decline in numbers. Whilst it's sad, 'blips' in a massive decrease in infant mortality over the last decade or so don't make me angry.

It seems that cancer is the main cause.

It's been rising since 2015. Which was the first time in a decade according to the BMJ.

Still ok with that?

I'm pleased that the story hasn't been seized on by the press to peddle "poor immigrant women who wait too long to become mothers" bashing type stories

And what do you expect us to do about it?

"Still ok with that?"

Yes. The actual increase in numbers is tiny. Every single death is obviously sad but these numbers are "ok".

I don't know, give a shit?

Something has changed in the last few years, resulting in more dead babies.

Why are you angry though?

Do you think someone's to blame?

I give a shit about a lot of things but tend to more for things I can actually DO something about. Unless I am missing something, i fail to actually see what any of us can actually DO to improve this and, quite honestly, there will always be some level of infant mortality.

There are so many factors that could be influencing this including women giving birth later.

Infant mortality rates continue to increase for low birthweight babies with mothers aged 40 and over

For babies of low birthweight (less than 2,500 grams), the infant mortality rate increased for mothers of all ages, except for those aged 20 to 24 and 35 to 39 years, where the infant mortality rates decreased (Figure 4). The most noticeable increase of 29.2% was seen in mothers aged 40 and over.

Sorry
section from "Infant mortality..." onwards should be in quotation marks.

They've been rising due to the rise in poverty and the cuts, here in Liverpool. The Liverpool Echo has been reporting it, Doctors, Consultants, Midwives and Charity workers are all contributing.

The lack of reaction is astounding. We are just passively allowing premature deaths to happen all over the country, to all sets of people (some have died waiting at A&E and some for ambulances, these are otherwise healthy people in their 20/30's).

The reports are there, the rise is because of the Austerity cuts. And it's just so unbelievable that nothing is being done.

"Why are you angry though? Do you think someone's to blame?"

Well if the Op is wrong, as well as me. So are all the Professionals that I listed that are getting involved in the reporting.

Poverty is rising and all the ills it brings with it and yes the Tory Cuts are to blame. Bury your head in the sand all that you want.

Birds So what do we DO about it? The OP is angry about infant mortality. There are lots of things I am angry about.

As you've put, premature deaths are happening all over the country and not just to babies but all sets of people.

The sad fact is that, generally, as a nation, we are far healthier than we have ever been, we're living longer which causes more strain on the NHS and other services.

As I've said on other threads, we would need to change our tax system hugely if we want the NHS that everyone wants that does everything for everyone at no cost. And there would STILL be some infant mortality. And sadly, the vast majority who earn between £20k and £50k aren't going to vote for between a 6p and 10p rise in the basic rate of income tax before we even talk about those earning more paying even more than that.

Birdsgottafly

Absolutely no one has been able to definitively say what the cause is - or even if there is one, so where are you getting your information from?

There are several possible issues that have been identified...note the word possible? Others include smoking & obesity.

If you know for a fact that “austerity” is the cause, contact the relevant scientists because I am sure they’d be interested in your data.

Until/unless you can supply verifiable facts, then perhaps you’d like to stop bossily telling everyone off for “burying their heads in the sand”.

I think hard decisions need to be made about the NHS and nobody wants to make them because it's political suicide.

There is another thread which is asking why some medications are free e.g. type 2 diabetes but others like asthma inhalers aren't.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3210960-To-not-understand-why-some-life-saving-medications-are-free-and-others-aren't

Can the NHS continue in its current form with an aging population and increasingly expensive treatments and medications.

How do we pay for it when the top 10% of the population are already contributing over a 1/4 of the overall tax take
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39641222

@Birdsgottafly

It's a shame that you haven't shared your insights with all those professionals who haven't come to any conclusions.

Older mothers and obesity were mentioned.

Of course you could just be talking out your arse ...

Chazs Yes there was another similar thread that I contributed to last week. We have to accept the unpleasant fact that we can't do everything but do the best we reasonably can for as many people as we can. But if we did put as much into the NHS as most people would like, then tax would go up as much as I said and then you'd have far, far more poverty, unemployment, all manner of issues.

We can't do anything?

Something (or something's) have changed. Whether it is austerity, premature births or immigrant mothers not accessing prenatal healthcare, something has gone wrong. I refuse to accept that we have to accept an actual worsening of this.

The first thing people need to do is unpick the causes.

If part of it is down to more women having babies over 40 (which it appears to be) that is not necessarily austerity but a cultural shift.

The data around infant mortality mirrors that around looking at babies lost at the end of pregnancy and early weeks of life. It tells us that we are doing less well at caring for mothers and babies than we should be. Relative wealth has never been a straight predictor but maternity care is a pretty reliable predicter so Scotland with its relative poverty has better outcomes than the UK because there have been schemes to improve continuity of care, especially in more vulnerable areas. The UK doesn't perform consistently, babies are much more likely to die in certain trusts even when the data is controlled for the obvious contributory factors like maternal age, obesity, ethnicity etc. This should be a scandal, the best models of care are known but not always implemented. The care and monitoring of end of pregnancy, during labour and immediately post partum is too variable and consequently failure means more deaths. The numbers aren't OK unless you are happy with babies continuing to die when they did not need to do so, when they might not have if cared for in a different area.
For still births we rank 33/35 countries defined as similar to us - that is something that can change and I think we should be angry when the impact of each of these children lost around birth is so massive. That poverty then continues to claim more of our poor children than are wealthy is another shameful marker of our collective failure to improve outcomes.

Thank you @cabinbag

Said it better than me!

Shocked at how ready people are to accept this.