In a recent news release the Alabama Department of Public Health announced that the state’s infant mortality rate of 8.3 per 1,000 live births in 2015 showed a decrease from previous years. This is still higher than the 2014 United States rate of 5.8 per 1,000 live births. Other positive trends include the percent of births to teens (8.0%) and the percent of teen parents who smoked during pregnancy (9.2%), both the lowest percentages ever recorded. Unfortunately, the infant mortality rate for black babies was the highest it has been in the last ten years, at 15.3 per 1,000, widening the health disparity between black and white babies. Find more at http://www.adph.org/healthstats/.