(NEWS CENTER Maine) -- All week we've been talking about a troubling trend in America: mothers are dying from childbirth and the U.S. is the only developed country in the world where that trend is getting worse.
We got a lot of great feedback from you this week about this problem and took a closer look at what is happening in Maine. And what we found is that the troubling trend is not about mothers, but babies.
"Infant mortality is like the canary in a coal mine, it is a measure of what else is going on in our families in our community and our whole state," said Dr. Dora Mills, Vice President of University of New England. "So it's something we all need to be concerned about."
In Maine, about 80 infants die every year. That's about 6 deaths for every 1,000 births. Those numbers come from the latest report by state's Maternal, Fetal, and Infant Mortality Review Panel. It also shows Maine's infant mortality rate was higher than the national average for a period of five years.
The numbers peaked in 2013, with a rate of 7 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.
Some good news: the numbers have been declining since. But there's more work to be done.
Dr. Dora Mills says because infants are the most vulnerable in a population, infant mortality is a barometer for many different issues. Like poverty.
"You think about how often when you're pregnant, how often you have to see a healthcare provider such as a family doctor or an obstetrician," said Mills. "And if you're working and you're poor and you don't have money for gas how are you going to get that prenatal care?"
Another factor: a lack of hospitals equipped to deliver babies, especially in rural areas.
"You can drive from Bangor to Houlton....and there are no hospitals that deliver babies there anymore."
Part of the reason: lower birth rates.
"A number of rural hospitals in Maine have had to give up delivering babies," said Mills. "They do not want to but they've had to because of the cost of maintaining delivery rooms labor and delivery units for a few babies that are born because of birth rates have gone down and the reimbursement levels just aren't there particularly when your birth rates are down."
The leading cause of infant mortality in Maine? Preterm-related conditions.
This series, Mothers Matter has been one of the most-read and watched topics this week.