Between 1990 and 2001, the rate of Colorado infants dying in the first year of life declined dramatically, from 8.8 deaths per 1,000 births to 5.8, a decline of one-third. Between 2001 and 2005 the rate increased again, reaching 6.4 in 2005. In 2006, however, the rate fell to 5.7, the lowest rate ever recorded in the state.

Many of these deaths are still preventable and it is fully possible for infant mortality to be further reduced. Healthy People 2010, published by the US Department of Health and Human Services, established a set of national objectives for health in many areas, including infant mortality, and the 2010 goal is to reduce the infant mortality rate to 4.5 deaths per 1,000 births.

Such a change presents a real challenge. The declines during the 1990s were in large part due to declines in the incidence of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), which was impacted by the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation to put infants to sleep on their backs. This practice is associated with a reduction in infant death.

Declines in infant mortality in the current decade have been more difficult to accomplish. Declines in both neonatal mortality (deaths in the first 28 days of life) and postneonatal mortality (deaths between 28 days and 364 days) combined to yield a rate of 5.7 in 2006, but the 2010 goal of 4.5 will require further substantial reductions in both rates.

• Prenatal Weight Gain
• Low Birth Weight
• Maternal and Child Health Planning