But the welcome news was tempered by the fact that Black infants still have over twice the risk of dying as White infants, experts pointed out. Infant death rates dropped by 16% for women ages 30 to 39 and 12% for women 40 and older, the report found. "For Black women, that rate is over two times, so there's still an unacceptably high racial disparity in infant mortality," Gupta said. "Infant mortality is unacceptable to begin with, but the enormous racial disparity must be addressed." It's already known that Black infants have 2.3 times the infant mortality rate as White infants, according to the US Office of Minority Health.