The U.S. infant mortality rate is among the highest in the industrialized world, and Black babies are far more likely than white babies to die in their first year of life. Maternal mortality rates are also very high. The tragedy is twofold: it is undoubtedly tragic that babies die in their first year of life, and it is both tragic and unacceptable that most of these deaths are preventable. Babylost tracks social and cultural dimensions of infant death through 26 alphabetical entries, from Absence to ZIP Code. 

MONICA J. CASPER is the dean of the College of Arts and Letters at San Diego State University in California. She is the author of The Making of the Unborn Patient (Rutgers University Press).

Introduction

Absence
Abuse
Angel Babies
Awareness

Babyland
Black Infant Mortality
Blame
Breastfeeding

Children’s Rights
CIA World Factbook
Congressional Black Caucus
Cuba

Dads
Deprivation
Disability
Doulas

Emptiness
Envy
Epigenetics

Folic acid
Fracking
Frankenstein

Grief
Guilt

Hope

Infant Mortality Rate
Infanticide

Japan

Kangaroo Care

Life

Maternal Mortality
Medicaid
Memphis
Mother’s Day

Neonatology Nurses

Obstetric Violence
Ohio

Placenta
Prematurity
Prenatal Care

Quiet

Racism
Rainbow Baby
Reproductive Justice

Stillbirth
Survival

Tahlequah
Trauma

Urgency
Vulnerability

Washington, D.C.
Weathering Women’s Health

Xenophobia
Y earning
ZIP Code