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Experiences Of African American Mothers Following Infant Death, Katina W. Jones

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

African American women have been disproportionately affected by unfavorable birth outcomes for decades. Infant mortality rates for non-Hispanic African American women have been almost twice as high as that of Caucasian women for years. The goal of this study was to: (1) understand African American mothers’ experiences with infant death and (2) discover how African American mothers manage their grief following the loss of an infant. A review of the literature revealed African American women experience infant loss at a rate of 13.31 deaths per 1,000 live births compared to 5.63 for Caucasian women and 4.75-9.22 for other racial and …