To add a focal point to the context this article provides - the keyword in this article is "cesarean." We presume in the US health system it is normative. It is surgery. The other countries listed all have strong midwifery communities with significant hospital privileged. One of the ways midwives help reduce mortality rates is enable even births with complications to be delivered without surgery. If you have a baby on the way, consider a visit to a midwife. If nothing else, you'll gain access to knowledge, experience and training doctors do not typically receive in the US.
More quantitatively rigorous analysis: <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4856058" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4856058</a>.<p>> Considering the comparable sample reported in Panel A of Table 2, one-year infant mortality in the North East is 3.16 deaths per 1000 live births, whereas in the East South Central region (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas) this figure is 6.30 per 1000. Both the North East and the Pacific divisions have overall infant mortality rates within the distribution of the European countries considered. If the North East were a country, it would be similar to Austria.<p>> Consistent with this assertion, Almond et al. (2010) analyze the mortality consequences of incremental increases in medical expenditures for at-risk infants (including NICU admission as well as other expenditures), and find that the mortality benefits of additional medical care are concentrated in the first 28 days of life. Our results suggest that if anything <i>the US has a mortality advantage during the neonatal period</i>.<p>> Instead, the facts documented here suggest that, in general, policy attention should focus on either preventing preterm births or on reducing postneonatal mortality.<p>> Notably, in light of our income results, these policies do not focus on alleviating resource constraints per se but rather on providing information and support targeted to mothers and infants.
The US' health care statistics generally now put it at "second world status". For example, it's infant mortality put on par with Russia, Eastern Europe, parts of the Mid East and pacific islands [1],<p>At the same, we spend the largest percentage of our GDP on health care of any nation.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mo...</a>