Excerpt from "Closing the Gap," Addressing the Disparity of Infant Mortality Among African-American and White Infants: Approaches for Clinicians and Policymakers; Final Report of the Expert Panel on African-American/White Infant Mortality Gap Maryland has made considerable progress in reducing its overall infant mortality steadily since 1995. In fact, the State had a record low infant mortality rate Of deaths per 1000 live births in 1996. However, there remains a significant gap in the number of African - American and White infant deaths. African-american infants are more than two times likely to die within the first year of life. The State's overall child well - being will not improve unless we work harder to make sure that every child is born healthy and that every child reaches his first birthday. My Administration has made investigating the issue of racial disparity in infant mortality and finding solutions a top priority. In 1995, the Maryland Commission on Infant Mortality Prevention identified the need to reduce the racial gap in infant deaths among african-americans and Whites as a major goal in its eight point Statewide strategic infant mortality prevention plan. In 1996, I asked the Commission to appoint a blue ribbon panel Of experts to explore the factors contributing to the gap and develop recommendations for improvement. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.