Black preterm babies experience poor outcomes before, after birth

More Black babies are born preterm than their white counterparts, and the corresponding effects may explain why Black people in the US have worse health outcomes throughout their lives.

A study from Northwestern University found that nearly 12% of Black individuals experienced preterm births in 2019, which means their babies are born before 37 weeks gestation, compared to 7% of white birthing people. About one in 10 infants are born preterm in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And babies who are born preterm are more likely to develop vision and hearing problems, as well as learning disabilities, and as adults they’re more likely to report greater instances of cardiovascular disease.

Those differences follow babies as they age: “Prepregnancy cardiovascular health explained 8% of the racial difference while social determinants of health explained 20% of the racial difference between Black and white pregnant individuals,” according to Northwestern.

It’s the first study to explain how “individual-level maternal health factors (obesity, diabetes, hypertension) and socioeconomic factors (insurance, prenatal care, education) can be targeted to improve birth outcomes and how much each contributes to differences in preterm birth,” according to Northwestern.

Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of death globally for children under the age of five in 2019. In the US, premature births and low birth rates caused 92.2 infant deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the March of Dimes.

Methodology: The study analyzed data from the National Center for Health Statistics’s birth registration records for 2+ million people “who identified as non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic Black who had a live birth in 2019.”