Call for action as infant death rate twice the average

1 in 5 tragedies involve babies born to cousins

MORE than 120 babies born in Birmingham every year die before their first birthday – nearly double the national average.

The infant mortality rate has been persistently high for years, with too little done to address underlying causes, according to damning findings.

Now a taskforce of experts is being set up to confront the issue head-on after inaction going back ‘too many years’.

Deprivation, poor diet, unhealthy housing, lifestyle and smoking were all factors contributing to seven infants dying for every 1,000 live births, or around 125 deaths a year out of the city’s 18,000 births. The national rate is 3.9 per 1,000 live births.

One in five of the deaths locally involved babies born to consanguineous couples – those that are related as second cousins or closer.

This needed to be urgently addressed, the inquiry found.

Overall, families of Pakistani and black African ethnicity are worst affected by baby loss, the inquiry also confirmed.

The investigation was ordered by the city council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny committee amid concerns about the rate of perinatal and infant mortality, particularly in some ethnic communities.

Committee chairman Councillor Rob Pocock will present the findings to Birmingham’s full council this week and said the conclusions were an urgent wake-up call that more needed to be done.

His committee wants the city to urgently set up a new multi-agency taskforce with a remit to halve baby deaths by 2025, backed up with a grassroots community programme targeted at families in the most deprived areas that were the worst affected.

Councillor Pocock said: “Our city has a worse rate of infant mortality than other similar UK cities, and we need to find out why.

“The difference cannot be explained just by poverty or ethnicity, there are clearly other underlying factors at work.

“We need to find out what these are and do what’s needed to root this out.”

This must include raising awareness of genetic factors and reducing risks, without stigmatising and alienating communities, he added.

The committee found the issue had much wider and longer-term impacts beyond the immediate tragic impact of infant deaths – with many babies surviving premature birth and congenital disorders but with disabilities that caused lifelong issues that further exacerbated inequality and deprivation.

Shabana Qureshi, project manager for the Ashiana Community Project, which gives support services for women in Sparkbrook, said the findings bore out the experiences of local families.

“I see the devastating impact on families who suffer loss in this way, sometimes multiple losses in the same family. It is heartbreaking,” she said.

Often the issue of risk from genetic links was not aired at all, or was swept aside, even when families experienced loss or babies were born with significant disabilities.

“Some do not consider the link, while others prefer to refer to God’s will than recognise it could be a factor. It is not straightforward, and other factors around deprivation, lifestyle and access to services are involved, but we need to be open and share the science and the facts so people can make informed choices,” she said.

Councillor Paulette Hamilton, cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said it was alarming that the city’s rate of infant mortality is twice the national average, with many of them preventable. She said she was ‘committed to taking immediate action.”

The difference cannot be explained just by poverty or ethnicity, there are clearly other underlying factors at work. Councillor Rob Pocock