While most children in Kern County are born healthy and into nurturing homes, there remain far too many infants and the very young who, upon entering life, also enter into life-threatening conditions. In order to improve the health conditions of children, responsibility must be shared. Parents and other family service providers and health agencies must nurture children into healthy behaviors and attitudes about proper health care and nutrition. Kern County is first in the state in death among newborn babies during the first month of life. Kern County has the highest first-year infant mortality rate in the state.
Kern County ranks fourth in the state in low birth-weight babies.
About one-third of expectant mothers receive little or no prenatal care in Kern County. Prenatal conditions and congenital anomalies were among the leading causes of infant mortality, accounting for 47 percent and 21 percent of the infant mortality. Licensed family child care providers and licensed child care centers numbered 760 in 1996 and represents a capacity for about 17,900 children. More than three-fourths of centers and available spaces are in the Bakersfield Metropolitan Area. The costs for child care are higher for younger children.