BLACK BABIES in England are almost three times more likely to die than white babies, according to alarming new figures.

The latest data from the National Child Mortality Database, shows the child death rate in the year ending 31 March 2023 was highest for children of black or black British ethnicity, at 8.7 per 1,000 live births, approximately three times the rate of infants of white ethnicity at 3.0 per 1,000 live births.

Babies from Asian or Asian British ethnicity had the second highest death rate at 6.2 per 1,000 live births, which was also higher than white infants.

The rates for both of these ethnic groups continued to increase in comparison to previous years, whilst the death rate for children of white ethnicity decreased from the previous year and remained lower than all other ethnic groups.

Karen Luyt, the programme lead for the database and a professor of neonatal medicine at Bristol University, told The Guardian that more needs to be done to make minority women feel welcome in maternal healthcare.

“There’s an element of racism and there’s a language barrier,” Ms Luyt said.

“Minority women often do not feel welcome. There’s cultural incompetence and our clinical teams do not have the skills to understand different cultures.”

Babies who lived in the most deprived neighbourhoods in England also had a higher child death rate compared to children who reside in richest areas.

The child death rate for children resident in the most deprived neighbourhoods of England was 48.1 per 100,000 population, more than twice that of children resident in the least deprived neighbourhoods at 18.7 per 100,000 population.

Previous reports published by MBRRACE-UK, has revealed the persistent disparity in maternal mortality rates between women from Black and Asian aggregated ethnic groups and White women.

Maternal mortality rates were found to be more than four times higher for Black women, two times higher for mixed ethnicity women and almost twice as high for Asian women. 

Earlier this year a landmark health conference for Black mothers took place for the first time in the UK.

The Black Maternal Health Conference was created by Sandra Igwe, to highlight racism and bias that has created inequalities in maternity care experienced by Black women in the UK and spark radical changes for black mothers and their maternal health outcomes.

Ms Igwe previously said: “We have powerful and reputable voices within the sector contributing to the day which will support in improving Black women’s health outcomes.

“We want to rebuild trust between the Black community and maternity service providers and we believe the best way to start will be to hold the Black Maternal Health Conference so that Black women’s voices can be heard.”

The latest figures from National Child Morality Database, also show that sadly 50 more black babies died in the year to April 2023 than in the previous year.