Why is it that the five countries with the lowest rates of infant mortality also have very high rates of midwifery?
First of all, infant mortality is the wrong statistic, but there’s another thing too that they don’t point out. Unfortunately, race is a risk factor for perinatal mortality. Women of African descent have higher rates of premature labor, higher rates of pregnancy complications, and higher rates of perinatal mortality, and that occurs regardless of what country they give birth in. And it actually persists even in women of African descent who are of higher education and higher income levels; they have a much higher rate of problems compared to their economic cohort of other races. The fact of the matter is the countries with the best perinatal morality rates are the whitest countries. If you correct for race, you get a very different picture. The Unites States is the first world country with the largest population of women of African descent, and that has a big impact on our statistics.
