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For Black Women, Education Is No Protection Against Infant Mortality
In contrast to whites, the most educated are the most likely to lose their babies
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Education protects white women from losing their babies in infancy. The more education they have, the lower the infant mortality rate. Strangely, though, it’s the opposite for black women. The most educated face the greatest risk of having their children die at birth or in infancy.
Stress from dealing with racism and sexism seems to be a key reason that highly educated black women are far more likely lose their babies than are equally educated white women, says Keisha Bentley-Edwards, a co-author of a new report, which is titled “Fighting at Birth: Eradicating the Black-White Infant Mortality Gap.” The stress can lead to premature delivery of low birth-weight babies.