What Can We Do To Prevent Infant Mortality?

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Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) shows the death rate of children under 5  years of age per year. According to some analysis, Infant Mortality is decreasing by every year but are we doing everything to make it minimal?

Some of the basic causes (which we ignore mostly) of infant deaths are:

• Increased number of high-risk women.
• Lack of prenatal care.
• Chronic diseases among pregnant women.
• Birth defects and genetic disorders.
• Lack of family planning knowledge.

These are some pre-cautions which can apply to decrease the infant mortality rate.

• In the past teenage pregnancies were very common and it was a general  reason for infant deaths. With the passage of time, it began to decrease  and now the contrary has taken place. Women of present age seem to delay  their pregnancies into late 30s and early 40s which is also a risk and  give rise to infant deaths. To prevent this, women should choose  reasonable age for pregnancy.
• Chronic diseases for instance blood pressure, diabetes, asthma and other  pulmonary and cardiac diseases in mothers also give rise to defects in  births. So we should prevent these diseases and give them extra  treatment to decrease IMR.
• During pregnancy, one of the most affecting factors is nutrition. No  matter if it is under-nutrition or it’s over-nutrition, in both cases  the child is affected. So pregnant women should take exta care of their  diet. Talking of diet, alcohol and smoking and other drugs also have an  adverse effect on the child so women should also avoid these during  pregnancy.
• Excessive prenatal care should be provided to the pregnant women so that  risks during pregnancy can be taken care of.
• The immature birth is a major cause of infant death. The weight of the  child depends upon the time of gestation period. Most of the infant  deaths are caused by LBW (low baby weight) and VLBW (very low baby  weight). If the above measures are taken then it can be avoided.
• Education sessions of women and their husbands or partners about family  planning and pregnancy should be arranged at regular intervals so that  people may be aware and make responsible choices.

Analysis shows that IMR is constantly decreasing in the whole world. For example, 10.5 million children died in 1999 which was lesser than the  previous decade by 17.5% and in 2009, 7.76 million childern of 0-4 years  of age died which is far too less than 1999. But when we will be able to take it to its minimal stage.