Sophia Paffenroth to report in UK for national health journalism fellowship

Sophia Paffenroth, women’s health reporter for Mississippi Today, has been selected for the Association of Health Care Journalists’ International Health Study Fellowship. 

Through this international fellowship, Paffenroth will compare and contrast reproductive health policies and practices in Mississippi with those in the United Kingdom to better understand how access and affordability shape infant mortality rates in both places. 

Paffenroth will build on her existing reporting. In August 2025, State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney declared Mississippi’s infant mortality rate a public health emergency at 9.7 deaths for every 1,000 live births, higher than the national average. Research has shown that Black babies in Mississippi are more than twice as likely to die in infancy than white babies. More than a year later, experts say the state should do more to improve outcomes for its children, including focusing on equity. 

“I’m so excited by the opportunity to provide Mississippi with a meaningful international comparison of maternity care as stakeholders in the state navigate a maternal-infant health crisis,” Paffenroth said. 

Through her reporting in the United Kingdom, Paffenroth said she hopes to learn more about the country’s “rich history of community midwifery care” and how it has boosted outcomes for pregnant people and newborns from households across all income levels while also lowering costs.

“We are thrilled to see Sophia take her reporting on this important issue to the next level,” said Laura Santhanam, health editor at Mississippi Today. “The insights and data she returns with will help our audiences make more well-informed decisions on matters of life and death.”

Launched in 2018, this fellowship is sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit research foundation. The program has sent health journalists from across the United States abroad to ask questions – and seek answers to – some of this nation’s most demanding health challenges. 

In this latest cohort with three other U.S. journalists, Paffenroth will travel to New York to gain insights into reading international health statistics, navigating a new country as a journalist and understanding systems of care and patient concerns. Then, Paffenroth will travel to the United Kingdom to conduct her reporting.