Reducing infant mortality
Dear editor:
An infant's death to any family is devastating and a loss of productivity to a community. Although infant mortality rates in the United States have remained consistently high, Arkansas' rates have trended even higher than the United States' in recent years. For a state in one of the wealthiest nations in the world, why are our infant mortality rates on par with countries like Croatia?
In 2018, Arkansas ranked fourth out of 50 states for high infant mortality rates with a 7.8 percent death rate. A major problem to this issue is sudden infant death syndrome (SIDs), the primary cause of death in most babies and a result of unsafe infant sleeping habits. Moreover, racial disparity persists in infant fatality as the lack of resources and income severely impede the ability to overcome infant mortality. In 2018, the infant death rate for blacks in Arkansas was an average of 11 percent while the rate for whites was 6.7 and 4.5 for Hispanics.
One solution to combat this issue is to implement free programs to parents and require officials to be trained on SIDs. Educating parents would encourage safe sleeping practices for infants; furthermore, officials will be licensed and aware of the SIDs risks in child care situations. Free programs would allow disadvantaged parents to receive equal knowledge without having to pay any expense, thereby closing the racial disparity gap in infant mortality. Imposing SIDs informational kits can discourage hazardous infant sleeping habits such as bed-sharing and target the leading factor of infant death in Arkansas. In other states such as New Jersey, Ohio, and Alabama, free baby boxes, which are created to promote safe baby sleep patterns, are delivered to expecting parents. Arkansas should apply this program to families, as the states with baby boxes have seen a significant decrease in infant mortality rates in recent years.
Babies are the future. Ensuring the life of babies will lead to healthier communities overall, reducing a statewide tragedy.
Minola Lee
Hot Springs
Kudos to Robinson
Dear editor:
I just want to thank Mary Robinson for her recent letter "The scariest person." Mary, trying to explain anything to Progressive Socialist Democrats is of no use. Mr. Ragland made the observation that many of the readers of my piece on immigration should be disgusted with my views. No, Mr. Ragland, most of us are disgusted with Progressive Liberal Democrats that would destroy this country using race, income inequality, welfare, socialism, open borders, aborting full-term babies, removal of God, illegal voting, free everything, and made up news to destroy the greatest nation on this planet. Your loyalty is only to yourself and your Progressive buddies. There are countries out there where you would be happier. Even 72 percent of the people surveyed by NBC after the State of The Union Address agreed with the president. Sickening isn't it? I hope all Democrats' eyes have been opened to where you are headed. It will not be a good place.
I thought for years that the Socialist Progressives had cheapened the value of life. No, now we just openly murder and call it a legal choice. Now we look the child in the eyes and ask the parent do you want "it" or not? If this is where we are headed, God help us! The same people that would go to court to "Save Willy" would kill a human. What hypocrisy looks like is currently spelled Democrat. (Deeply Entrenched Members Openly Committed to Removing American Traditions).
Edward K. Cherry
Hot Springs
Editorial on 02/13/2019