Mississippi Declares Health Emergency Over Increasing Infant Mortality Rate

The mortality rate has increased to 9.7 per 1,000 live births in 2024, the state says.

A newborn baby at a maternity ward, in this file photo. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Mississippi’s health department has said it declared a public health emergency last week because of rising infant mortality rates in the state.

Data released by the state show that the mortality rate increased to 9.7 per 1,000 live births in 2024, the “highest in more than a decade,” according to a statement from the Mississippi Department of Health on Aug. 21. It said that 3,527 infants have died before the age of 1 since 2014.

“Every single infant loss represents a family devastated, a community impacted and a future cut short,” State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney said in the statement. “We cannot and will not accept these numbers as our reality. Declaring this a public health emergency is more than a policy decision; it is an urgent commitment to save lives.”

The declaration allows for more resources, such as employing a standardized system for maternal and infant care, reducing the number of places where it is difficult to find maternity care, and providing education for safe infant sleeping practices.

Infant mortality is the measure of how many babies die before they reach their first birthday. Because the number of babies born in the United States varies from year to year, researchers calculate rates to better compare infant mortality over time.

“Improving maternal health is the best way to reduce infant mortality,” Edney said. “That means better access to prenatal and postpartum care, stronger community support and more resources for moms and babies. Healthy women of childbearing age are more likely to have healthy pregnancies, which in turn lead to healthier babies.”

The national average infant mortality rate is 5.6 deaths per 1,000, according to the state health department. Meanwhile, federal health data show that Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rate in the country.

A report released in May by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, shows that the national infant mortality rate dropped to about 5.5 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2024 from about 5.6 per 1,000 live births, where it had been the previous two years.

Although the CDC is expected to release a clearer picture on the infant mortality rates across the United States later in 2025, the Mississippi Health Department said in the statement that it “recognized the urgency of this crisis and could not wait to take action.”

The infant mortality rate in the United States has been worse than in other high-income countries, which health officials have attributed to poverty, inadequate prenatal care, and other factors. Even so, the U.S. rate generally has improved over the decades because of medical advances.

A report released in September 2024 from maternal health nonprofit March of Dimes said that in areas across the United States, one in every three counties lacks an obstetric clinician.

The report states that “in 1,104 US counties, there is not a single birthing facility or obstetric clinician.”

“Areas with no access to maternal care [affect] over 2.3 million women of reproductive age and 150,000 births in 2022,” the report reads.

“Our data confirms that women living in maternity care deserts and counties with low access to care have poorer health before pregnancy, receive less prenatal care, and experience higher rates of preterm birth.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.