Go to Ruth's house: A response to infant mortality

摘要

If I could leave you with the single most importantprescription to address the tragic and seeminglyintransigent phenomenon known as infant mortality,it would be this: Go to Ruth’s House. In due time, Iwill make plain for you the meaning of this poignantprescription. For the moment I want to briefly recountfor you the long and laborious diagnostic processthat leads me to this proposal for intervention.In 1984 I was a neonatologist plying my trade inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home of Magee Women’sHospital, one of this nation’s largest obstetric deliveryservices and among the world’s finest institutions forcare and research in obstetrics and gynecology. In thatyear Pittsburgh held the dubious distinction of havingthe highest infant mortality rate among United Statescities with a population greater than or equal to250,000. Mayor Richard Caliguiri was busily steeringPittsburgh through its Renaissance from an industrialto a service-based economy.