Introduction
Infant death is the death of an infant under one year of age. This topic covers infant mortality, its causes and dynamics, medico-social prophylaxis and the related indicators.
Infant mortality
- Infant death is the death of an infant under one year of age.
- The infant mortality rate is the probability of dying between birth and exact age 1, expressed as deaths per 1000 live births.
- Bulgaria: 6.6 per 1000 live births (2015).
Causes
According to the CDC, the five leading causes of infant death in 2015 were:
- Birth defects
- Preterm birth and low birth weight
- Sudden infant death syndrome
- Maternal pregnancy complications
- Injuries (e.g. suffocation)
- Neonatal mortality: low birth weight and prematurity, birth injury and difficult labour, sepsis, congenital anomalies, haemolytic disease of the new-born, conditions of the placenta and cord, diarrhoeal diseases, acute respiratory infections, tetanus.
- Post-neonatal mortality: diarrhoeal diseases, acute respiratory infections, other communicable diseases, malnutrition, congenital anomalies, accidents.
Dynamics: factors influencing the infant mortality rate
- Quality of and access to health care.
- Age of mother, birth control and birth interval:
- Births to younger mothers (under 20 years) generally result in higher infant mortality; the same is true for older women (40-49 years).
- By the 2nd and 3rd child the infant mortality rate falls because the mother has more experience in caring for a child. After 3 children it begins to rise again because the family is less capable of looking after many children.
- As mothers leave more time between successive babies, the rate falls: a child born within 2 years of a previous one has an IMR of 110, whereas a child born within 4 years of another has an IMR of 39.
- Standard of living (income, education, occupation, nutrition).
- Societal factors (status of women in society, sex of the infant).