America’s infant mortality rate rose last year, ending roughly two decades of declines.

According to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation’s infant mortality rate rose 3 percent, from 5.44 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2021 to 5.60 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022.

The CDC said its new report documents “the first year-to-year increase in the rate since 2001 to 2002.”

Between 2002 and 2021, the infant mortality rate fell 22 percent, the agency said.

The data CDC analyzed for the report showed increases were highest in babies born to white and Native American women and those born to women between the ages of 25 and 29.

The report said there were increases in the death rates of babies born to black, Hawaiian or Pacific Islander and Hispanic women.

Georgia, Iowa, Missouri and Texas saw increases in infant mortality that the CDC called significant; increased rates in 27 other states were not considered significant.

The report said the number of babies who died in their first 28 days of life rose 3 percent, while those who died after 28 days old until 264 days old rose 4 percent.

“It’s definitely concerning, given that it’s going in the opposite direction from what it has been,” Marie Thoma, a University of Maryland researcher, said, according to The Associated Press.

Dr. Eric Eichenwald, a Philadelphia-based neonatologist, said the numbers were “disturbing” but assigning a cause would be guesswork.

An increase in RSV and flu infections in the fall of 2022 “could potentially account for some of it,” said Eichenwald, chairman of an American Academy of Pediatrics committee that issues rules for caring for newborns.

The report said the number of infant deaths increased by 610 in 2022. Georgia had an increase of 116 infant deaths, while infant deaths in Texas rose by 251 babies.

“It would appear that some of the states could be having a larger impact on the [national] rate,” said Danielle Ely, the CDC report’s lead author, adding that it would be difficult to find one cause of the increase in infant deaths.

Ely said the increase “was a bit of a surprise,” according to Time.

“We don’t live in a vacuum,” Dr. Dennis Costakos, director of neonatal and perinatal medicine at the Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin, said, according to USA Today.

“The health of the baby is often directly related to the health of the mother,” he said.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.