SC infant mortality rates hit Black mothers hardest. In York County, it’s even worse

Black mothers in York County are more than four times as likely to lose infants at birth compared to white mothers, new state data shows.

And the disparity is widening.

On Wednesday, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control released its 2023 Infant Mortality Report and separate maternal morbidity and mortality review committee findings. Both found significant upticks in infant and maternal mortality rates. Both found disproportionately high impacts for Black families.

With the new data, DHEC public health director Brannon Traxler said the infant mortality rate increase is alarming and goes against state efforts to prevent those outcomes. Traxler said the data will be used to work toward improvement with health partners.

“As a mom, my heart aches for those parents who have experienced the unimaginable loss of a child,” Traxler said.

Infant mortality is the rate of deaths per every 1,000 live births. Statewide, the rate jumped 12% from 2020 to 2021, the most recent year of data. The rate is up almost 40% since 2017. The 416 infant deaths was highest in South Carolina since there were 435 deaths in 2012. Deaths from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome more than doubled in a year.

SIDS was the fourth most common cause of death in 2021, behind congenital malformations or birth defects, disorders from short gestation or low birth weight and maternal pregnancy complications. Accidents ranked fifth, just behind SIDS. As in past years, suffocation or strangulation in bed made up by far the most accidental deaths.

Overall, Black infants died at almost 2.5 times the rate as white infants.

York, Lancaster, Chester counties

State data classifies mortality rates based on the race and ethnicity of the mother. It’s for residents within the state or, where designated, counties.

The difference between counting residents compared to hospital data in areas can be significant in the Rock Hill region, where a large segment of the population lives as close to North Carolina hospitals as those in South Carolina.

DHEC data lists non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic white data for the state and counties. Hispanic and other non-Hispanic statistics are shown statewide, but aren’t large enough for comparison at the local county level.

The easiest figures to compare are new numbers for 2019-21, against the same data from 2016-18.

Black infant mortality rates already were higher than white infants, and York County saw its Black infant mortality rate increase 2.5% from one three-year span to the next. Chester County went up 2%.

Only Lancaster County went against the state trend, among local counties.

For all counties statewide that had enough deaths to generate a mortality rate in each three-year window, Lancaster County had the best improvement in Black infant mortality rate with a 5.5% drop.

White mortality rates of 10.9% in Chester County (down from 12%) and 2.6% in York County (down from 4.7%) were lower in the 2019-21 window than in the prior three years. Chester County had six deaths compared to seven in 2016-18. York County had 15 deaths in the more recent span, about half the 28 it had in the prior one.

The 5.2% mortality rate, and with 11 deaths, were the exact same in Lancaster County, compared to the prior three years.

Statewide, Hispanic mothers saw the lowest infant mortality rate in 2021 for the first time in three years. The 5.1% rate was just below white mothers at 5.2%, and well below the overall state figure of 7.3% and number for Black mothers at 12.7%.

The maternal morbidity and mortality report doesn’t break down by county, but does show a similar trend. Black mothers had a 67% higher pregnancy-related death rate than white mothers in both 2018 and 2019. DHEC bureau of maternal and child health director Kimberly Seals said disparity rates for Black women and infants remains a concern in South Carolina.

“We must continue our work to ensure we are reaching more expecting parents so we can close this gap,” Seals said, “which will assist in bringing the total infant mortality rate down as well.”

Population comparison

From 2016 to 2021, there were 95 listed infant deaths in York County. Of them, 45% were to white mothers, and 44% to Black mothers. There was one more white infant death (43) than Black infant death (42).

Those numbers come in a county where the U.S. Census Bureau counted almost 192,000 white residents in the 2020 Census and almost 52,000 Black ones. Almost 19,000 more residents were described as two or more races, per the census. More recent bureau estimates project 74% of York County is white compared to 19.5% Black, with another 2.4% of two or more races combined.

The census bureau estimates almost 75% of Lancaster County is white. Almost 21% is Black and 2% is two or more races. The 39 infant deaths there from 2016 to 2021 involved 22 white (56%) and 14 Black (36%) mothers.

Chester County has a more even overall population distribution at 60% white and 36% Black. More than 2% of its population is two or more races. Chester County had 24 infant deaths in the six-year span. White mothers accounted for 13 of them (54%) compared to 11 infant deaths (46%) for Black mothers.