Maternal and Infant Health

Pregnancies, Births, And Abortions

Low Birth Weight

Lack of Prenatal Care

Infant Mortality

The health of mothers and infants is of critical importance, both as a reflection of current health status and as a predictor of the health of the next generation. There is nothing that influences or determines the quality of life more than a healthy beginning, from conception through birth and the first years of life. Infant death is an important measure of a community's health and social well being. This focus area addresses a range of indicators concentrating primarily on those affecting pregnant and postpartum women and those that affect the first year of life.

There is nothing that influences or determines the quality of life more than a healthy beginning.

Pregnancies, Births, And Abortions

• In 1998, there were 12,614 live births to women living in Travis County, including 5,504 to White women, 1,427 to Black women, 5,075 to Hispanic women (Texas Vital Statistics, September 2000).
• The Travis County pregnancy rate was higher than that of Texas. Although decreasing in Travis County, teenage pregnancies also remain significantly higher than that of Texas.
  
  
  
• While the pregnancy rate for women ages 13 to 17 in Travis County has decreased over the past three years, it remains higher than any other county in Central Texas and 12.4 percent higher than the State as a whole (Texas Vital Statistics, September 2000).
  
  
  
• Teen pregnancies in the Black and Hispanic populations of Travis County were significantly higher than in the White population.
  
  
• The Healthy People year 2000 target for the teen birth rate was less than 50 births per 1000 women aged 15-19 years. State and local rates are tracked for women 13-17 years, therefore direct comparisons can not be drawn (United States Health and Human Services, September 2000, Healthy People 2000: Family Planning Progress Review).

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Low Birth Weight

• Low birth weight (LBW) is defined as a birth weight of less than 2,500g (5 lb, 8 oz). Low birth weight, often associated with underdevelopment, is the risk factor most closely associated with neonatal mortality (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion [NCCDPHP], September 2000, Reproductive Health). Of the infant deaths in Travis County in 1998, 17 percent were attributed to premature births.
• Low birth weight is potentially preventable.
• Factors related to low birth weight include late entry into prenatal care, teen pregnancy, older maternal age, smoking, drug, and alcohol use during pregnancy, pre-term labor, short interval between pregnancies, and poor maternal nutrition (NCCDPHP, September 2000, Reproductive Health).
• The percentage of low birth weight births in Travis County increased from 6.7 percent in 1995 to 7.2 percent in 1998, while the State rate increased from 7.1 to 7.4 in the same time period (Texas Vital Statistics, 2000).
  
  
  
• The percentage of low birth weight births for Blacks (12 percent) was significantly higher than for Whites (6.8 percent) or Hispanics (6.3 percent) during 1998 in Travis County.
• The Healthy People national year 2000 target for low birth weight births was not more than five percent of the total births. Because the Black population has a higher percentage of low birth weight births, the 2000 target is nine percent for Blacks (Public Health Service, 1990).
  

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Lack of Prenatal Care

• Timely use of prenatal care, defined as first use of prenatal care in the first trimester, may reduce the risk of low birth weight and infant death.
• Of the mothers who gave birth in 1998 in Travis County, 82.3 percent began prenatal care in the first trimester, which is better than the State as a whole with 79.2 percent (Texas Vital Statistics, 2000).
• In 1998, the percentage of White mothers in Travis County who began prenatal care in the first trimester (91.7 percent) was higher than Black mothers (76.1 percent) and Hispanic mothers (72.8 percent) (Texas Vital Statistics, 2000).
• The Healthy People national year 2000 target was for 90 percent of all pregnant women to receive prenatal care in the first trimester (Public Health Service, 1990).

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Infant Mortality

Infant mortality is a widely used indicator of maternal and infant health as well as an indicator of a community's overall quality of life (National Center for Health Statistics, July 28, 2000).

• In 1998, Travis County reported 72 infant (less than one year of age) deaths. Thirty-eight of these deaths were attributed to three leading causes:
• 22 (31.4 percent) were related to birth defects
• 12 (17.1 percent) were related to premature birth
• 4 (5.7 percent) were related to sudden infant death syndrome (TDH, September 2000, Epigram).
• The mortality rate for Black infants (11.9 per 1,000 births) was significantly higher in 1998 than for White (4.2 per 1,000 births) and Hispanic infants (5.3 per 1,000 births) in Travis County (TDH, September 2000, Epigram).
  
  
  
• In comparison to the above data, the infant mortality rate for Blacks in Texas decreased by 59.5 percent, from 16.8 per 1,000 births in 1989 to 6.8 per 1,000 births in 1998 (TDH, September 2000, Epigram).
• The Healthy People national year 2000 target was no more than seven infant deaths per 1,000 live births. Because the mortality rate for Black infants is higher than for White and Hispanic infants, the 2000 target for Black infants was 11 infant deaths per 1,000 live births (Public Health Service, 1990).
  

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