Seeing Inequity: Born Small in St. Louis

Babies born underweight are more likely to spend their first days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) fighting to survive.

They’re more likely to suffer from respiratory distress, digestive disorders, and heart malformations, and in childhood are at increased risk for neurological, physiological, and developmental disabilities.

As adults, they’re more likely to experience diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and obesity.

And in St. Louis, Black babies are more than two times as likely as White babies to be born at a low birth weight — and three times more likely to be born at a very low birth weight.

This difference can’t be explained away by education or income, factors that often impact birth outcomes.

In fact, studies have shown wealthy, educated Black mothers have worse birth outcomes than poor, uneducated White mothers.

Why? Many researchers now point to the ongoing stress of being a Black woman in the United States.

And when it comes to babies born at low or very low birthweight, we all pay a price: the average hospital stay for an uncomplicated birth costs $600. The average hospital stay for a low birth weight baby costs $15,100.

This is life and death in St. Louis.

This is what racial inequity looks like.