Here is a new study on the mortality rate of preemies worldwide. It also touches on the percentage of premature babies versus total births in each country. Report: More than 1M preemies die in first month annually - CNN.com As I would expect, the US has a very high rate of premature babies born each year. This is probably because our technology and medical expertise allows us to try to save babies who are in high risk pregnancies. Obviously if you have a higher percentage of high risk babies born, you will have more infant deaths. This is a serious contributor to our "high" infant mortality rate. There are many other factors including high risk behavior during pregnancy and lack of education to new mothers. The bottom line is that there are many things that affect infant mortality and our quality of care is certainly not the only thing to point to even though a lot of politicians are using this to push along an agenda. While the system may need some fixing, we still have the finest medical care in the world.
