263. That’s the number of women in Illinois who died during pregnancy or within one year of giving birth over a three-year period, according to a recent state report. [Chicago Sun-Times]

718. That’s the number of infants who died in Illinois in 2022, according to data released earlier this month by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationwide, there were 20,538 deaths last year, a 3% increase over 2021 — the largest percentage increase in infant mortality in more than two decades. 

If that’s not enough evidence we are failing pregnant mothers and their babies, a new report by the March of Dimes offers still more sobering figures. The report gives Illinois a grade of D+ for the number of preterm births in 2022. Out of 128,315 births last year, 10.57% — or 12,139 babies — were born prematurely, putting our state’s youngest residents and their mothers at risk for all sorts of health issues, not to mention premature death.

And these numbers continue to be even more alarming for women and babies of color, especially Black women and infants. The preterm birth rate for Black women in Illinois is 1.6 times higher than the rate among all other women, according to the March of Dimes report.

“It’s unfortunate that we only see a modest improvement” in pre-births nationally and locally, Elizabeth Oladeinde, director of maternal and child health for the March of Dimes’ Chicago office, told us. “We know more work needs to be done.”

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