Inequality, exclusion and infant mortality: listening to bereaved mothers

Abstract

This chapter will examine issues of social justice by focussing on social exclusion and infant mortality. Infant mortality is defined as the death of a live born child before its first birthday. Social exclusion and infant mortality are both important areas of policy debate in the UK and globally (1).We will examine how far they are linked and will focus on ethnic minority populations with higher than average rates of infant mortality. The chapter continues by considering a small group of women who have experienced the death of an infant and who have come together in a group called HOPE. We ask how their experience might inform our understanding of the needs of women at the time of childbirth and in the weeks immediately following it. Their experiences illuminate how feelings of exclusion, and injustice, can be manifest in and through the structures and processes of engaging with health care professionals. The potential to promote social justice and enhance inclusion via listening to the voices of those who have had this experience of loss is considered