40 or childbirth. Women in rural areas had the highest maternal mortality rates because they had limited access to proper health care during pregnancy and childbirth. Health services infrastructure in La Matanza, a poor part of Buenos Aires province (16 km from the city of Buenos Aires), was evaluated by Szmoisz and colleagues (1995) to assess determinants of maternal deaths related to health services and health behaviors. Data analysis showed that the Argentine health system was not prepared to deal with poor women and rarely ever reached out to them. This reality was evident by the fact that most maternal deaths were preventable and were due to medical errors. Screening for women at risk also was rare, and only one facility had referral procedures. Hospitals did not have enough obstetric beds and were inadequately equipped for maternal care; the ratio of obstetricians to maternity patients was 1 to 2106 women. Furthermore, the municipal government did not have policies on maternal and child health. What was more alarming than Argentina’s maternal health outcomes was the health of its infants. In 2002, Argentina’s infant mortality was 16.8 per 1000, and, in poor regions, infant mortality was as high as 26.7 per 1000 (DEIS, 2009). Having more than 16 infants die per 1000 is unacceptable, and having 26.7 in rural areas is even worse. In comparison, in 2001, the United States had only 6.8 infant deaths per 1000 (Mathews et al., 2003). Infants in Argentina died at high rates due to pregnancy complications, malnutrition, diarrhea, newborn breathing difficulties, and congenital heart defects. As more women were being pushed into public health care, it became the responsibility of the government, not the private insurers, to address the problem of infant mortality and health. According to Argentina’s Ministry of Health, 6 out of 10 newborn deaths could have been prevented with proper prenatal care, delivery care, and early diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases (DEIS, 2009). In addition, in all Argentine provinces, at least half of child deaths would have been preventable with better access to health care, medications, and proper nutrition. The effects of economic cycles between 1994 and 2006 in Argentina on infant and maternal health were examined by a professor at the University of Iowa and two medical researchers from Argentina (Wehby et al., 2017). They studied data collected by the Latin American Collaborative Study of Congenital Anomalies, an epidemiological surveillance program in Latin American countries that voluntarily registers infants withmalformations in the interest of researching and preventing birth defects. These data provided microlevel information on several household and healthrelated measures for a large sample of birth cohorts. Wehby and colleagues (2017) also studied a sample of around 15,000 infants without birth defects who were conceived between 1994 and 2006 across 13 provinces. Results showed that rising unemployment reduced fetal growth rates; patterns indicated a 50-g decline in birth weight for every 10% rise in unemployment. This implies that during economic crises, welfare benefit expansions may have needed to include middle class parents, who also were experiencing stress and shocks from savings losses. The economic crisis also had a negative impact on birth weights. From 2000 to 2002, low birth weights in Argentina increased from 72 to 77.8 per 1000 (DEIS, 2009). Birth weight is determined by gestational age and fetal growth rate, which can be affected by nutritional and stress pathways. A reduction of income can have an impact on child health more generally through the effect of inadequate consumption of healthy diets. Financial insecurity also can increase stress and lead to risky maternal behaviors, such as smoking and alcohol consumption, all of which have an impact on fetal health. In addition, a lack of income might lead to greater physical activity or reduced prenatal care. Inadequate nutrition in infancy and childhood also leads to restricted growth (stunting), which impairs children’s development physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally. Furthermore, undernutrition is one of the leading causes of death in children under age 5. Limited access to nearby health care providers also leads to higher rates of deadly infectious diseases in infants. The impact of the economic crisis on infant mortality, maternal mortality, and birth weights was a big problem for Argentina’s
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