Infant mortality in Mississippi has risen to 11.4 / 1000, up from 9.7 the previous year, worse than  places like Costa Rica  (9.4), Ukraine (9.5), and Bosnia (9.6). Inexcusable in a wealthy, modern, country.  Rates are similarly far too high in the Canadian territories of Nunavut (16) and Yukon (11).

Link: Infant Mortality Rising in Deep South in US.:

In Mississippi itself, infant deaths among blacks rose to 17 per
thousand births in 2005 from 14.2 per thousand in 2004, while those
among whites rose to 6.6 per thousand from 6.1.

The overall jump in Mississippi meant that 65 more babies died in 2005 than in the previous year, for a total of 481. …..

….
The main causes of infant
death in poor Southern regions included premature and low-weight
births; Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, which is linked to parental
smoking and unsafe sleeping positions as well as unknown causes and congenital defects….

…Poverty has climbed in Mississippi in recent years, and things are
tougher in other ways for poor women, with cuts in cash welfare and
changes in the medical safety net.

Dr. William Langston, an obstetrician at the Mississippi Department of Health, said the state was working to extend prenatal care
and was experimenting with new outreach programs. But, he added,
"programs take money, and Mississippi is the poorest state in the
nation." …

…Oleta Fitzgerald, southern regional director for the Children’s Defense
Fund, said: "When you see drops in the welfare rolls, when you see
drops in Medicaid and children’s insurance, you see a recipe for disaster. Somebody’s not eating, somebody’s not going to the doctor and unborn children suffer."

In 2004, Governor Haley Barbour came to office promising not to raise
taxes and to cut Medicaid. Face-to-face meetings were required for
annual re-enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP, the children’s health insurance program; locations and hours for enrollment changed, and documentation requirements became more stringent.

As a result, the number of non-elderly people, mainly children, covered
by the Medicaid and CHIP programs declined by 54,000 in the 2005 and
2006 fiscal years.