Journalist Earns Infant Health Fellowship Focused on Mississippi
Sophia Paffenroth, Mississippi Today's women's health reporter, was selected for an international health study fellowship.
Updated on Nov. 11, 2026 in Pregnancy
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Sophia Paffenroth, the women's health reporter for Mississippi Today, was selected for the Association of Health Care Journalists' International Health Study Fellowship. The fellowship, sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund, will support her comparison of reproductive health policies in Mississippi and the United Kingdom.
Why it matters
Mississippi's infant mortality rate of 9.7 deaths per 1,000 live births prompted a state public health emergency declaration in August 2025. The fellowship is intended to examine how access and affordability shape infant mortality in both places.
Mississippi's infant mortality rate is 9.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, and Black babies in the state are more than twice as likely to die in infancy as white babies. The fellowship's comparison with United Kingdom policies has not yet produced published results.
The players
Sophia Paffenroth
Paffenroth is the women's health reporter for Mississippi Today, a news outlet covering the state's health policy and public health issues.
Dr. Dan Edney
Edney is Mississippi's State Health Officer, who declared the state's infant mortality rate a public health emergency in August 2025.
Commonwealth Fund
The Commonwealth Fund is a nonprofit research foundation that studies health care access, quality, and equity in the United States and abroad.
Association of Health Care Journalists
The Association of Health Care Journalists is a professional organization of reporters that runs fellowships to strengthen health reporting.
The details
The fellowship cohort includes three other U.S. journalists and began with training in New York before travel to the United Kingdom. Paffenroth plans to study the United Kingdom's community midwifery care and to learn how international health statistics are read and reported.
Timeline
2018: The Association of Health Care Journalists' fellowship program was launched.
August 2025: State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney declared Mississippi's infant mortality rate a public health emergency.
November 11, 2026: Paffenroth's selection for the fellowship was announced.
Health Landscape
The fellowship builds on Mississippi's August 2025 public health emergency declaration on infant mortality, which the state health officer issued in response to a 9.7 per 1,000 rate. The reporting will compare how Mississippi and the United Kingdom structure reproductive health care to explain disparities in infant survival.
Pregnant people in Mississippi face one of the nation's highest infant mortality rates, making access to prenatal and postpartum care a practical concern. Readers tracking these services may find the fellowship's comparison with United Kingdom community midwifery useful once results are published.
The takeaway
Infant mortality is shaped by how easily families can access and afford care before and after birth. Watching how states respond to public health emergencies can help readers understand which services are most at risk.
Further reading
Explore more reporting on pregnancy and maternal health trends in Mississippi.
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