By Linda Dixon, MCJ Director, Health Justice Campaign
During National Infant Mortality Awareness Month, it is important to remember that Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rate in the nation. Black babies account for 60% of all infant deaths in the state. Black women account for 75% of all pregnancy-related deaths in Mississippi.
These numbers are alarming. They are also heartbreaking, because they tell us something we can no longer afford to ignore: our state is not doing enough to support Black moms and babies. Behind every statistic is a mother who didn’t make it home, a baby who never had the chance to grow up, a family left to carry a grief that never should have been theirs to bear. These are not isolated tragedies. They are the predictable result of a system that has failed Black women in Mississippi for generations.
This is where the Mississippi Center for Justice’s work around maternal health becomes vital. We start by listening to women.
Too often, the voices and perspectives of women — especially Black women — are left out of the room when health policies and decisions are being made. Yet it is women who live with the consequences of those decisions every day. If we want policy that actually improves outcomes, we have to start with the people those policies are supposed to serve.
That’s why we conduct listening sessions creating space for women to talk openly about the health challenges they face and the solutions they want to see.
What we hear repeatedly is a simple but powerful truth: health doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s woven into every facet of a woman’s daily life. What public health experts call the “social determinants of health” — housing, transportation, employment, and environment — shape a woman’s health and well-being just as much as whether she has access to quality healthcare and a reliable provider.
A mother without transportation can’t make it to her prenatal appointments. A woman without stable housing is managing stress that directly affects her pregnancy. A mom without paid leave has to choose between her paycheck and her recovery. These aren’t side issues. They are maternal health issues.
We know our current healthcare system is broken — and the upcoming cuts to Medicaid threaten to make an already dire situation worse. Medicaid is a lifeline for many Mississippi mothers and babies, and cuts to that program will fall hardest on the communities already bearing the greatest burden of maternal and infant death.
That’s why the Mississippi Center for Justice doesn’t stop at listening. We take what we hear from women directly into the halls of power, engaging in legislative and administrative advocacy to change a system that has too often left women behind.
We’ve already seen what this advocacy can accomplish. For years, Medicaid in Mississippi covered only 60 days of postpartum care — a window that closes just as many serious complications, from postpartum depression to cardiovascular issues, begin to emerge. We knew 60 days was not enough. So, we fought to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage to a full year, and we won.
That victory matters. But we know women need more than a year of coverage — they need a system that listens to them from the start, that addresses the housing and transportation and workplace barriers standing between them and good health, and that treats their lives as worth protecting.
This National Infant Mortality Awareness Month, we’re asking Mississippians to sit with these numbers — and then to join us in changing them. Black moms and babies in this state deserve better than to be a statistic. They deserve a healthcare system, and a state, built to support them.
The Mississippi Center for Justice will keep listening, keep advocating, and keep fighting until that’s the reality every Mississippi mother experiences.