(FORTUNE Magazine) – It's no secret that the U.S. rates for infant mortality are among the highest in the Western world. In 1987 ten U.S. infants died for every 1,000 born alive; 17 developed countries have lower rates. In the South 12 infants die per 1,000. Now executives from a number of corporations with Southern operations -- Du Pont, Florida National Bank, Marion Laboratories, Southwestern Bell, Tenneco, and Burlington Industries -- are pushing ahead with a coalition to drive these statistics down by promoting free prenatal care and educational programs in the workplace. They still lag behind their counterparts in the North and West, who, says John Schlitt, a research associate of the Southern Regional Project on Infant Mortality, ''tend to provide more help and education to workers.'' The Oster/ Sunbeam Appliance plant in Louisiana started teaching pregnant women about prenatal care in 1986. Since then, the average pregnancy cost to the company has dropped from $27,000 to $3,300.