A look at the weeklies across the city

By David Taber

The average Bostonian might be concerned about a detail tucked into the 18th paragraph of story. about the rise in births by caesarean section in the bay state in the Boston Globe.

“That findings about C-section rates were part of a larger annual report on births in Massachusetts. That study also found that racial gaps in infant mortality rates persist in the state, with African-American babies more than 2 1/2 times more likely to die before their first birthday than white infants,” the story reads.

The Boston Public Health Commission’s (BPHC) analysis of the state Department of Public Health’s 2006 Birth Report found that the black infant mortality rate in the city is 13.2 per 1000, as opposed to an average rate of 5.6 per 1,000. And that what caught the attention of reporters at the Boston Bulletin and the Dorchester Reporter.

The Bulletin’s Joe Mont seems to have been the first to take more interest in the story.

Mont’s story falls short of providing a full explanation for the disparity, however. He quotes BHPC Executive Director Barbara Ferrer as suggesting that the chronic stress of racism may be to blame.

“Ferrer said that ‘chronic stress, and not episodic stress’ and the relation to birth outcomes traces back to cortisol, a hormone that is stress related and induced,” he writes.

He asserts that studies show that racism has an impact on physical health, but does not cite them. He also does not discover why it would then make sense that the mortality rate for Latino infants is only 2.6 per 1,000. Presumably Latino’s experience some chronic stress and strain from racism, right?

This is not to say that Mont’s article is in error, factually. Overall he presents a really fascinating, compelling explanation for why the black infant mortality rate is so much higher than the average. He just doesn’t provide enough background information for the reader to be able to decide whether it holds water or not.

Over at the Dot Reporter, Gintautus Dumcius’s Feb. 28 article has public health officials talking about nutrition issues, tobacco use and diabetes, as well as homelessness and substance abuse issues as possible factors.

His article quotes Tarma Johnson, director of clinical health services at the Mattapan Community Health Center, where the infant mortality rate is twice as high as in the city as a whole, as saying a Vitamin D deficiency may be the culprit.

“Through testing that started last year, they found that many of their patients have low amounts of Vitamin D, and, and that 60 percent of black babies that die were born to women who are Vitamin D deficient,” Dumcius writes.

He also reports that the BPHC is planning to release a more detailed study to help iluminate the causes of the disparate mortality rates in a few weeks.

Lastly, Dumcius notes that there was a time in our city’s history when the Boston Globe was concerned about urban issues.

“In Codman Square, the infant mortality rate was so high 20 years ago the Boston Globe was prompted to write a series, titled, ‘Birth in the Death Zone,’” he writes.

On a brighter note, probably the coolest neighborhood weekly story in the last month is a bit about longtime community activist and former state Rep. Mel King. According to South End News reporter Linda Rodriguez, he hosts a weekly free brunch that is open to the public at his house every Sunday.

David Taber is a long-time member of the Alliance for Community Journalism and a staff reporter at the Jamaica Plain Gazette.