Jordin Sparks is to be praise, and criticized for her stand on abstinence. Jordin Sparks made a bold statement when she stood up at MTV’s Video Music Awards on Monday for the Jonas Brothers’ right to wear promise rings, a symbol of their pledge to abstain from sex until marriage. But she also unwittingly chastised any teenager who happens to be sexually active. How? Vital Signs has the details. 

New York City shows largest decline in infant deaths. New York City has made the biggest improvement of all major cities in lowering its infant death rate, according to new numbers from the city’s Health Department. New York’s infant mortality rate fell again in 2007, reaching the lowest level ever recorded. The 2007 rate - 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births, down from 5.9 in 2006 - marked the sharpest one-year decline since 2001, when the city’s rate dropped to 6.1 from 6.7 per 1,000 live births. Of the 128,961 babies born in New York City in 2007, 697 died before reaching a year old, 43 fewer than in 2006. The city’s infant mortality rate remained significantly lower than that of the nation, which was 6.7 deaths per 1,00 live births in 2006, the most recent year on record. The number of local births surged by 3,455 during 2007, and births to Asian women accounted for half of the increase. News reports suggest that many Chinese couples timed their pregnancies to coincide with the Year of the Golden Pig, a particularly auspicious year in the Chinese lunar calendar. Here’s how the numbers break down by ethnic group: The infant mortality rate was 9.8 per 1,000 live births among Blacks, 6.3 among Puerto Ricans, 4.3 among other Hispanics, 3.9 among Whites, and 3.1 among Asian/Pacific Islanders. “We are heading in the right direction, but substantial disparities remain,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, New York City health commissioner. “Infant death rates remain unacceptably high among Blacks and Puerto Ricans and in low-income neighborhoods. We need to expand services for these groups and communities, and we also need to work to reduce inequities that persist in income, education, health care, safe neighborhoods and access to healthy affordable food and regular physical activity.” How did the city improve its numbers? Health officials say the department has been working on many fronts to help women stay as healthy as possible before pregnancy, obtain quality health care during pregnancy, and provide the care and support their babies need to thrive. Its key initiatives include breastfeeding education, safe-sleep education, cribs for families that can’t afford them, and nurse home-visiting during pregnancy and early childhood.

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