Abstract
The United States has relatively higher rates of infant mortality compared to other industrialized nations, but specific areas—like Syracuse, New York—have experienced alarmingly high rates over the past few decades. Furthermore, in Syracuse, African American and Latino babies die at two-and-a-half times the rate of white babies. What is going on here? This is the question that Sandra Lane poses in Why Are Our Babies Dying? Lane approaches the issue as a medical anthropologist, working in the County Health Department and then as the Director of Syracuse Health Start in the 1990s. Critiquing the individualism of bioethical and public health approaches, Lane draws on the conceptual framework of structural violence. This approach views racial differences in infant mortality as significantly more complex than rectifying individual behaviors—rather, the underpinnings lie in “the unequal distribution of power and resources” that create a vast web of problems.
The book is divided into four parts: (1) an introductory chapter details the background of Lane’s involvement in infant mortality research; (2) three background chapters provide the Syracuse-specific history of the issues at hand, with detail on measuring infant mortality, and a discussion of “risk in social context”; (3) four chapters focus on interlocking contextual issues, including teen pregnancy in Syracuse, education and health literacy, incarceration of minority men, and lack of access to nutritious foods; and (4) a concluding chapter that draws together the complex nature of infant mortality and specific actions that Lane and her colleagues took in Syracuse, both successful and unsuccessful.
Lane addresses multiple audiences: community members, policy makers, researchers, and students in various health-oriented fields. This book would be well-suited to use for courses on race, health disparities, reproductive issues, and women’s studies.