<P> Economic expenditures on labor and delivery and neonatal care are relatively high in the United States . A conventional birth averages 9,775 USD with a C - section costing 15,041 USD . Preterm births in the US have been estimated to cost $51,600 per child, with a total yearly cost of $26.2 billion . Despite this spending, several reports state that infant mortality rate in the United States is significantly higher than in other developed nations . Estimates vary; the CIA's World Factbook ranks the US 55th internationally in 2014, with a rate of 6.17, while the UN figures from 2005 - 2010 place the US 34th . </P> <P> Aforementioned differences in measurement could play a substantial role in the disparity between the US and other nations . A non-viable live birth in the US could be registered as a stillbirth in similarly developed nations like Japan, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, the Netherlands, and France--thereby reducing the infant death count . Neonatal intensive care is also more likely to be applied in the US to marginally viable infants, although such interventions have been found to increase both costs and disability . A study following the implementation of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act of 2002 found universal resuscitation of infants born between 20--23 weeks increased the neonatal spending burden by $313.3 million while simultaneously decreasing quality - adjusted life years by 329.3 . </P> <P> The vast majority of research conducted in the late twentieth and early twenty - first century indicates that African - American infants are more than twice as likely to die in their first year of life than white infants . Although following a decline from 13.63 to 11.46 deaths per 1000 live births from 2005 to 2010, non-Hispanic black mothers continued to report a rate 2.2 times as high as that for non-Hispanic white mothers . </P> <P> Contemporary research findings have demonstrated that nationwide racial disparities in infant mortality are linked to the experiential state of the mother and that these disparities cannot be totally accounted for by socio - economic, behavioral or genetic factors . The Hispanic paradox, an effect observed in other health indicators, appears in the infant mortality rate, as well . Hispanic mothers see an IMR comparable to non-Hispanic white mothers, despite lower educational attainment and economic status . A study in North Carolina, for example, concluded that "white women who did not complete high school have a lower infant mortality rate than black college graduates ." According to Mustillo's CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) study, "self reported experiences of racial discrimination were associated with pre-term and low - birthweight deliveries, and such experiences may contribute to black - white disparities in prenatal outcomes ." Likewise, dozens of population - based studies indicate that "the subjective, or perceived experience of racial discrimination is strongly associated with an increased risk of infant death and with poor health prospects for future generations of African Americans ." </P>

In america which racial group has the highest infant morality rate