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Show Iron Co unty births Mortality rates high i department would look lor improved medical care lor mothers to carry a baby lor the entire pregnancy, and then have the child die soon after birth. On the other hand, if pre-natal care were not so improved, the child would be stillborn and not counted as a infant mortaltiy. The last possible explanation, ex-planation, he said, would be an increased birth rate among minorities, also a high-risk category. According to recent figures released by the Utah State Department of Helath, the birth rate and death rates for Iron County were very close to. the rates for the state as a whole in 1979, but the infant mortality rate for the country is much higher than statewide totals. The 1979 figures show a birth rate of 28.7 per 1000 for Iron County, just slightly lower than the 30.0 rate for both the Southwest Health District and the entire state. The deathrate for the country is also very similar to the district and state totals. Iron County had a rate of 6 deaths per 1,000. The district rate was 7.2 and the state-wide rate was 5.8 However, the infant mortality rate for the country was 18.3, compared com-pared to only 11.9 for the southwest district and 10.7 for the state. According to Lee Shaw, department public information in-formation officer, the county's high mortality rate for infants under one year of age has not been studied or explained by the department. Shaw did note, however, that . there was a ring or border around the edge of the state where the infant mortality mor-tality rate was higher than in other areas. He stated further that if a study were made of the problem, there would be four things that the department would look for as possible explanations. ex-planations. Two possibilities would be a high birth rate among teenage or older women. Both these categories are high risk, said Shaw. He also said that the |