Childbirth and Infant Mortality in African Countries
- Ernie J. Burgher and SitiTalkBlog
- Jul 25, 2016
- 2 min read
Image Credit: Public Domain
The records of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) tell us, "Every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 babies less than five years old and 145 women of child-bearing age". This makes Nigeria one of the largest contributors to the persistence of infant and maternal mortality rate of the world. In Nigeria, 1 in 13 of pregnant women runs the risk of dying from pregnancy and child birth, and statistics show a significant portion of these deaths are preventable. Traditionally, the most common causes of maternal mortality which also causes Infant mortality most of the times are preventable; if most developed countries have their rates under 5 per 1000; this means African countries can also have a low rate.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines as Infant mortality rate (IMR) as the number of death of infants; an infant is a baby below one year of age and the rate calculated per thousand live births of children a year in a country. This definition of IMR is known and accepted everywhere, as well as the formula for calculating the Infant Mortality Rate of a country. However the definition of live birth (as pertains to childbirth) varies from country to country and IMR as shown by different Governments are sometimes inaccurate according to international standards due to different definitions governments have of live births. If we look at Japan and some European countries, live birth occurs, only if an infant breaths at birth. Whereas in all African countries live birth occurs if there is any sign of life in the infant after birth, such as voluntary muscle movement, breathing or heartbeat and so on.
There are several causes of infant mortality, some of which are common and some are less common.
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Ernie J. Burgher is a bi-lingual freelance journalist and author, and speaks English and French. Ernie writes for SitiTalkBlog.
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