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When Dora Anne Mills, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP, University of 51С�Ƴ� vice president for Clinical Affairs and director for the Center for Excellence in Health Innovation, looks at the increasing numbers of infant mortality rates in Maine, she sees an indicator that the overall health of people in Maine, particularly in rural areas, is declining.

She expressed this sentiment in a recent “Maine Voices” piece in the Portland Press Herald. “This is critical, because infant mortality – the rate at which babies die in the first year of life – is the most accurate pulse we have on the health of a society,” Mills wrote. “It reflects not only the health of people at their most vulnerable time of life – that is, infancy – but also of women during and after pregnancy, and of the entire family and community, since any environmental toxin, public secondhand tobacco smoke, or other community-wide health issue often exerts their heaviest impact on infants.”

Mills says Maine’s infant mortality rates have increased from some of the best in the country in the 1990s to the 43^rd worst in the nation, with numbers on par with some third world countries. WCSH verified these numbers in a report about infant mortality.

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