NC’s child death rate has risen to the highest level in more than a decade
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Child deaths are up in North Carolina, and health leaders are looking at the reasons why and how to bring those numbers down. The state’s Child Fatality Task Force found that the child death rate in 2022 rose to its highest level in more than a decade.
Nearly 1,500 children died in North Carolina in 2022, the most recent year for which we have statistics. According to data from the state’s Child Fatality Task Force, more than half of those children were babies. Data from the task force report shows that the leading cause of infant death in North Carolina in 2022 was prematurity and low birth weight.
LaToshia Rouse wants to see those numbers come down. She knows what it feels like to watch premature babies struggling to survive.
“I had triplets at 26 weeks 6 days, and I know what the fight was to keep them here,” she recalled.
Her children are now healthy and she draws on her own experience in her work as a doula. She focuses on preventing premature births, when possible and supporting moms and babies before birth and after they come home from the hospital.
“I work with families in the Triangle to help them to understand what are the things they can do to not have a baby early,” she explained. “We talk about taking your blood pressure, know some of the signs it could be increasing, and just healthy lifestyles thinking about stress levels thinking about healthy eating.”
She said efforts to keep moms and babies healthy are especially important for people of color.
“When you look at any type of medicine, people of color experience more of the worst outcomes,” she noted. In preterm birth, it takes a little bit more work for a family of color in that space because we are looking at stats that say we don’t make it out the same way as others.”
Babies aren’t they aren’t the only ones state health leaders worry about. According to North Carolina data from the task force report, guns were used in 95% of homicides and more than half of suicides among 15, 16, and 17-year-olds. The task force recommends focusing on safe gun storage.
Rouse, who’s on the board of directors of the American Board of Pediatrics, agrees.
“Those lockboxes save so many lives, and not just in those accidental situations but also in suicides,” she said.
After an 8% increase in the rate of child deaths between 2021 and 2022 in North Carolina, she hopes to see those numbers go down in the future. “A lot of this, at some point, comes to policy,” she said. “There are opportunities for supporting doulas and having doula legislation be passed in this state, for everyone to have a doula in their insurance. There are opportunities for these lock boxes to be something that’s available to families that have children, and it could save so many lives.”
For a look at the complete report from the Child Fatality Task Force, click here.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS17.com.
