Ok, remember the first one of these? http://www.fun-online.sk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6104 Grieg kindly posted the CIA-produced statistics for our interest, and asked the interesting question why Europeans had a higher death rate than the USA. Some good debate followed (I loved my answers ) but sadly it got a little bogged down in personal arguments. So, after a decent amount of cooling-off time, I thought I'd bring back the post, and ask a question that was asked in the original post, but (rightfully) ignored as being essentially off-topic. Why does the USA have a higher rate of infant mortality than Europe? Let's try and keep the interesting debate and not let ourselves get carried away...
I would say more sex, but from what i heard Americans have the least sex. less abortions, we try not to kill off our next generation. Bigger familys more then 5+ kids per parent.
Ironic that this should be one of the causes why exactly that is happening... Religion probably plays a big role in this. Most forms of Christianity encourage their flock to have big families regardless of the ability to support them (notably Catholicism), whereas the stricter variants also campaign against vaccination for kids, leading to a greater number of deaths due to common and preventable diseases. This is certainly true for the more religious parts of the Netherlands. I do not know how big child support is in the US, so I can't honestly give any good reason why the difference between rich and poor should play any role in this.
im not saying that abortions arnt in the us (as most people know) 50,000,000 documented have taken place since it was allowed.
infant mortality reasons for the US rates include the use of drugs, booze, and tobacco by the mothers while pregnant- a larger class that has less prenatal care due to location, poverty, and a disinclination to access medical care while pregnant - a higher rate of abuse of both the babies and the mothers both before and after birth- the US has higher of teen mothers which in itself is a cause of infant deaths - there are certain subsets within the population that carry genes that impact the mortality rate- there may be environmental reasons in some areas than impact the rate- and last the lack of knowledge of child care by some mothers. this last may be a result of the loss of the traditional family support as well as the young age of the mothers
Re: infant mortality But all these reasons - except possibly the healthcare one - also apply to the UK. I think abortion is not relevant in this - I understood the figures to be from birth onwards (happy to be corrected).
