The Prenatal Pandemic

Mon, 18 May 2009 15:32:54 GMT

While the world scrambles to understand and combat the swine flu, declared an imminent pandemic by the World Health Organization, another pandemic rages on in the United States – and this one is far deadlier.

The growing inaccessibility to proper prenatal care has caused a pandemic of enormous proportions in the United States. Consider that:

A lack of prenatal care means a baby is three times more likely to be born premature, and five times more likely to die;
The number of Americans without health insurance that would cover prenatal care has grown by nine million in the last 13 years;
The March of Dimes gave America a “D” on its recent Prenatal Care Report Card – because a full 12.7% of the 4.3 million babies born in the U.S. annually are premature;
Over 19,000 babies die within the first 28 days of birth each year in the U.S.;
Of those deaths, a full 30% are directly caused by premature birth…
Meaning that premature birth accounts for over 6,000 infant deaths in the United States annually.

A lack of prenatal care leads to premature birth. Premature birth leads to death. A lot of it. The bell sadly tolls for over 6,000 babies each year. That’s more than the death count from the World Trade Center attacks, and this wound is self-inflicted.

Many of these deaths could be prevented with proper prenatal care, yet the U.S. government is more concerned with the swine flu which, as of this writing, has killed one person on U.S. soil. In fact, President Barack Obama has even requested a whopping $1.5 BILLION from Congress to combat the spread of the swine flu.

That kind of money could cover prenatal care for nearly every uninsured pregnant woman for a year. It seems as those who can think for themselves are more interested in protecting themselves from a relatively mild flu than protecting the babies who are unable to think – or speak- for themselves.

Even though a pandemic is characterized by the presence of an infectious disease, how can we be more fearful of a relatively mild swine flu than an epidemic that, in a decade’s time, kills more than 60,000 babies? That’s more than the population of Carson City, Nevada.

Human life is too precious to politicize. It’s time to get our priorities straight. Yes, the swine flu needs addressed. But it’s also time to take care of our nation’s babies. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P_dFD0J47I

Advocate Aaron

The Prenatal Pandemic