Infant Mortality Rate
Infant mortality rate (IMR) is the number of deaths of children less than one year of age per 1000 live births. The rate in a given region, therefore, is the total number of newborns dying under one year of age divided by the total number of live births during the year, then all multiplied by 1,000.
There are various forms of infant mortality. Neonatal, or newborn death is mortality occurring within 28 days postpartum. Neonatal death is often attributed to inadequate access to basic medical care during and after the mother delivers her newborn. It accounts for 40-60% of infant mortality in developing countries. Postneonatal infant mortality occurs when the child is 29 days to a year old. Biggest contributors to postneonatal deaths are malnutrition, infectious disease, and home environment. Perinatal mortality occurs in the late fetal period, which typically occurs after 28 weeks gestation and the first week postpartum.
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Famous quotes containing the words infant, mortality and/or rate:
“According to the historian, they escaped as by a miracle all roving bands of Indians, and reached their homes in safety, with their trophies, for which the General Court paid them fifty pounds. The family of Hannah Dustan all assembled alive once more, except the infant whose brains were dashed out against the apple tree, and there have been many who in later time have lived to say that they have eaten of the fruit of that apple tree.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Sonia Taitz (20th century)
“At the rate science proceeds, rockets and missiles will one day seem like buffalo—slow, endangered grazers in the black pasture of outer space.”
—Bernard Cooper (b. 1936)