---

What's Good

•Air quality here is better here than most cities in our survey. Air quality has been linked to childhood asthma and fertility rates, among other things.

•Relative to population, Baltimore has more specialty retailers of healthy/organic foods and vitamins than most places in our survey.

•Baltimore has 59 midwives for every 1,000 births, the 8th highest in our survey. The national average is 37 midwives for every 1,000 births.

•Expecting and new moms have plenty of parks: Baltimore's ratio of parks to residents is 1 : 1,493. The average in our survey is 1 : 3,790.

•State laws require health insurance companies to provide or offer at least some coverage for fertility-related services.

•There are 59 percent more advanced fertility clinics per capita than average here, the 6th highest ratio in our survey.

•Baltimore has 8.2 NICU facilities per 10,000 births, highest in our survey. The average city in our survey has 3.4 NICU facilities per 10,000 live births.

•Baltimore has plenty of high-risk pediatricians, 85 percent more than average per capita and the 7th highest in our survey.

•Baltimore has more OB-GYNs than average, the 8th highest in our survey.

•Maryland stands out in a measure of legislation related to cord blood education, research and related issues.

•State laws require stringent background checks for day-care workers.

•Baltimore has 28 licensed home day cares for every 1,000 children under 4 years, the 4th highest in our survey. The average city in our survey has 13.

Needs Improvement

•According to data from the CDC, maternal mortality in Maryland is especially high.

•The CDC reports very high infant mortality rates for Maryland.

•12 percent of pregnant women in Baltimore admit to smoking during pregnancy, the 10th highest rate in our survey. Nationwide, 8 percent of pregnant women smoke.

•Baltimore babies are 50 percent more likely than average to be born with low birth weight.

•Babies here are 24 percent more likely than average to be born prematurely.

•7 percent of pregnant women here receive late or inadequate prenatal care. That's the 11th worst score in our survey, compared to an average of 5 percent.

•Just 64 percent of Baltimore mothers attempt breastfeeding. That's the 6th lowest percentage of any city in our report. The average for cities in our survey is 75 percent.

•Baltimore's violent crime rate is 65 percent higher than average, the 5th highest in our survey, in fact.

---