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Interesting study, but I feel there are more social factors that play into this and need to be studied. I have 2 kids and I can't imagine raising them without 2 parents in the household. The infant mortality rate seems very correlated to having a 2 parent household (see link for data of 2 parent households by race). Now the black doctor vs. white doctor for a black baby mortality is very interesting and it would be interesting to know if it's actually a bias by the white doctors or if black parents are less likely to trust a white doctor and ask questions (or something along those lines).

https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/8053-children-w...

(comment deleted)
Asking questions would increase the mortality?
I would say GP's last sentence should be read :

> if black parents are less likely to (trust a white doctor and ask questions)

So if the doctor were white the parents would ask less questions than with a black doctor. Hence asking fewer questions would increase mortality.

On the face of it this seems to make sense. If people don't see a doctor for what are unknown (to them) and possibly dangerous conditions, the babies wouldn't get help.

This is probably related to black mothers receiving systemically worse maternity care.

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/02/20/why-are-black-women...

Tho that is true, it doesn't seem to explain this particular effect. From the article:

"The study found no statistically significant link between the risk of maternal mortality – which is also much higher for black and brown women – and the race of the mother’s doctor."