When it comes to infant mortality, the United States ranks 54th in the world.

That's on par with countries like Romania, Hungary, and the United Arab Emirates,

and three times the death rate of Japan, Singapore, or Slovenia.

Within the U.S., Ohio is in the bottom 25% of all states, and within Ohio, Hamilton County was even worse,

until it started working on saving newborn lives more than a decade ago.

Today, Hamilton County has improved and is aiming to cut its rate even lower.

Paul Solomon went there to find out how they've done it for our coverage of race matters.

Wow, spring.

Single mom, India Brown says bringing son Mackay into the world two years ago was a near catastrophe.

Very early on, about 20 weeks through the rest of my pregnancy, I was actually on bed rest. Because her baby seemed about to be born four months early.

I had several hospital stays, several emergency visits, just in the middle of the night,

trying to keep the baby safe, keep him alive, keep him growing.

That's that guy over there?

Yes, exactly. He made it to 40 weeks and he actually wanted to stay longer.

It was really weird.

We were so worried he wouldn't do that.

She and her son survived in a historically perilous place for newborns.

We had the second highest infant mortality rate of a county hour size in the nation.

That was back in 2011, says Meredith Smith, head of Cradle Cincinnati, an organization

created to lead Hamilton County's effort to reduce infant mortality.

Death within one year of the baby's first heartbeat, first breath.

The way that our society is measured is the way that we treat our babies. So if we

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