Maryland is among the worst rates in the country for infant health, according to a report from the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation released on August 17, 2011. The Baltimore Sun reported that Maryland ranks 41st for percent of low-birth weight babies, at 9.2 percent in 2008, and 42nd in infant mortality, with 8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2007.
The report included the number of children affected by foreclosure as well as the number of households with at least one unemployed parent in the analysis for the first time as part of the foundation’s effort to determine the recession’s influence on kids, according to the Sun. Since 2007, nearly 4 percent of Maryland’s children were in households that experienced foreclosures. While that is the same as the national average, about 8 percent of the state’s children were living in households with at least one unemployed parent in 2010 as opposed to 11 percent nationwide.
The report concluded that the average nationwide child poverty rate increased 18 percent since 2000. “The recession really disassembled a wonderful movement forward,” Becky Wagner, the executive director of Advocates for Children & Youth, the Kids Count organization for Maryland, told the Sun.
Wagner added that a parent’s job loss is “a frequent precursor” to foreclosure, and both can begin a negative domino-effect for a child’s welfare. “That lack of security is really a game-changer,” she told the Sun.
If you have recently lost your job and are having trouble paying your mortgage, don’t let the threat of foreclosure impact the well-being of you or your children. Many foreclosure options are available, and bankruptcy court may be the best shot you have at saving your home.
The Law Firm of Kevin D. Judd – Washington DC bankruptcy lawyer
