Maine’s infant mortality rate is heading in the wrong direction

By Peggy Rotundo

“A tragedy is unfolding in slow motion here in Maine.” That’s the grim assessment that lawmakers recently heard from one of the state’s leading public health experts. She was talking to us about Maine’s opioid epidemic, the rising infant mortality rate and the need for the LePage administration to put more resources toward them.

Maine’s infant mortality rate is heading in the wrong direction. Back in 1996, Maine had the lowest infant mortality rate in the nation — and some said possibly even in the world. But that’s far from the case now.

The rate measures the number of babies out of every 1,000 births who die before their first birthday. These deaths are tragic for these infants and their families and they also serve as an indicator of the overall health of a population.

Maine’s infant mortality rate has been getting worse and worse. From the first in the nation, we have plummeted to 36th place, with seven deaths for every 1,000 births.

We’re worse than the national rate of six deaths per 1,000 births. And we’re way behind neighbors like New Hampshire and Vermont, which hold the seventh and second best ranks with rates of 4.9 and 4.3.

Maine is the only state in the nation with a worse infant mortality rate this decade than in the previous one. We have to turn this around.

Members of the Appropriations Committee recently heard about the importance of the state’s public health nurses from Dr. Lani Graham, a former state health director. She told us that the lack of public health nurses is likely contributing to Maine’s worsening infant mortality rate.

Under the watch of Gov. Paul LePage and Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew, the number of public health nurses working for the state Center for Disease Control and Prevention has been slashed in half, to about 25.

The Appropriations Committee as well as the Legislature as a whole continue to fund these vital positions, but the LePage administration simply won’t fill the vacancies.

The public health nurses we have left have to handle everything from working with mothers of drug-affected babies to tuberculosis detection, treatment and prevention to outbreaks of communicable diseases like the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009.

Dr. Graham says that in light of Maine’s opioid epidemic, we should be increasing the presence of public health nurses in Maine — not cutting back. We need to follow up on the growing number of drug-affected babies and their mothers and provide them with the care they need.

Public health requires constant vigilance, a collaborative approach and boots on the ground. Public health nurses are key to that equation.

Maine was once a leader. How far we’ve fallen.

We need to reverse this devastating trend — not just with words, but with action and resources to make a difference to the next generation of Mainers and to the well-being of our entire state.

Rep. Peggy Rotundo, D- Lewiston, is the co-chair of the Legislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee.