No Excuse for U.S. Infant Mortality Ranking

    As I was researching potential editorials to review, I came across one that seemed particularly shocking to me. I found this editorial entitled, “No Excuse forU.S. Infant Mortality Ranking” on USA Today and thought it would be something interesting to share on my blog. The author, Ginger Perry, points out how the United States, at one point was doing better than some countries in preventing newborn deaths. However, in more recent times that has changed. She notes that while other countries have made improvements on infant mortality rates, the United States has fallen behind to 41^st place worldwide. What I find surprising is that we are lagging behind other countries that have not shown such medical and technological advancements as the U.S. has. The author also finds this puzzling, mentioning that the U.S. is a nation that spends far more on health care than any other nation. So why are infant mortality rates increasing in the United States during this day and age?

   In her article, Perry discusses how infant mortality rates are still high and how many of the deaths could have easily been prevented through careful precautions and education. I will have to agree with Perry since I have had firsthand experience through my own pregnancy. I felt that as a pregnant mother I was not well informed and well educated throughout the steps of pregnancy and early motherhood. I think that most of what I learned I had to research myself. This could be changed if public health agencies and healthcare providers could team up to provide better consultation and service delivery to the patient. I feel that new mothers are not properly informed about all the causes and risks of infant mortality, such as smoking, substance abuse, lack of prenatal care, premature birth and SIDS. I also believe that more focus could be put in to researching and determining the causes of some infant deaths and developing ways to identify at-risk infants early on.

    Perry also discusses how babies of some minority groups are at higher risk of infant death than others. Again, if the government enforced education programs between health care establishments and minority groups to encourage healthy behaviors during and after pregnancy then maybe the death rates could be decreased. Another issue that Perry brings up, that I also agree with is that of fertility induced pregnancies. The use of fertility treatments has definitely increased over the years and pays a large contribution to the number of premature births in the nation. Maybe if there were limits or requirements on patients needing fertility treatments then the infant mortality rate in the U.S. could be lessened.

    As Perry mentions, these are reasons for the high mortality rates in the U.S., not excuses. Changes need to be made to decrease the number of infant deaths. I think that many readers can agree with her and perhaps even relate to the topics she discusses. The information she presents comes straight from statistics and research done by the World Health Organization and other public health services and she makes many valid points throughout her article. Her opinions are just an addition to the many others that stand against health care in the United States.

The Effect of Skyrocketing Gas Prices on Obama's Re-election

     This is an article that I think most of us can relate to. I initially read about it on ABC News before taking a bigger interest in it. The article is based off of a poll taken by ABC News and the Washington post. It talks about how the skyrocketing gas prices have had a negative effect on Obama’s re-election. My question is who can we really blame for the high costs of gasoline fuel and the economic hardships that have resulted? Today’s average gas prices are at $3.88 per gallon, which is quite an increase from two years ago when they were about $2.45 per gallon. As a result of the high gas prices, many people have found alternate ways in which they can reduce their costs of transportation. Despite the changes we have made, the nation is still far from recovering from its state of depression. With the drastic increase in gas prices, many Americans report financial hardship as a result. In fact, 53% of those people who are feeling serious hardship due to high gas prices say that they will not re-elect Obama for President. Unfortunately, since the nation is going through many economic downfalls the American people need someone to blame for not making things go the way they should. While Obama is taking the blame for the rising gas prices, he and the nation are looking into alternatives to solve this and other economic issues.