A major NHS-backed study has found that babies born to Black mothers in England and Wales are 81% more likely to die in neonatal care compared with those born to white mothers, in what experts describe as one of the clearest indications yet of ethnic and socioeconomic inequality in infant survival.
The research, published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, analysed data from more than 700,000 babies admitted to neonatal units between 2012 and 2022. It found that mortality rates for babies born to Black mothers reached 29.7 deaths per 1,000 admissions, compared with 16.9 per 1,000 for those born to white mothers.
