Infant Mortality: Why is the U.S. death rate high compared with other nations?

The United States spends more money on health care per person than any other country. Yet an American baby is less likely to reach its first birthday than a baby born in 21 other nations. Experts trace the problem to the inability of pregnant women from poor families to get early and continuous prenatal care. Without it, doctors can't screen for potentially serious medical problems. If untreated, these conditions can cause birth defects, the leading cause of infant death in the United States. Early prenatal intervention also can help pregnant women improve their diets and stop abusing alcohol, tobacco and other drugs that greatly increase the chance that they will give birth to low-birthweight infants, which are far more likely to succumb than other babies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]