Infant Mortality Rate in 2023 will see a decline or increase in the numbers, which we will deduce by looking at the numbers mentioned in this post. In layman’s words, Infant Mortality is the ratio of a child dying before their first birthday. As per the recent updates, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest infant mortality rate, i.e., 52 deaths per 1000 live births.
On the other hand, in India, the number is 28.3 for every 1000 newborns, as reported in 2019. Compared to the worldwide ratio, the number in India is much smaller; however, it can be even better if we take a periodical strategy followed towards the nullification.
This year, several world pediatrics conferences are happening to cope with this challenge worldwide.
Despite the strategic numbers, if we go into a deeper version of it – it is easily understandable that an infant, when born, needs special care and attention, including medical and environmental, which can have a tremendous positive hit on the mortality rate. To decide on and implement a couple of strategies, it is essential to know the primary cause.
To understand how the Infant Mortality Rate in 2023 will look, we need to examine the underlying causes. Let us take a look at a few.
What are the leading causes of an increase in Infant Mortality Rate?
Congenital disabilities: When an Infant is born with certain defects that are life-threatening immediately after birth or could be a chance of mortality soon, it is considered Congenital disabilities.
Sometimes, it causes reported medical complications for parents, especially for the mother.
As an example of the kinds of complications, we can take single-gene disorders, chromosomal disorders, and physical malformations.
The five most congenital severe disabilities are:
- Congenital heart defects
- Neural tube defects
- Hemoglobin disorders
- Down’s syndrome
- Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase
Preterm birth and low birth weight: There can be several reasons, including the mother’s health, complications in the mother’s uterus, etc. It is best to avoid the situation with proper medical care, but sometimes it is not guaranteed. On the other hand, though an Infant may die due to this, there are scenarios where they can survive. These scenarios ask for suitable and trained medical care to not turn up as a cause of Infant Mortality.
Maternal pregnancy complications: These complications can cause weak childbirth, which cannot survive. Although there could be genetic reasons, it happens due to Gestational Diabetes, High blood pressure, Anaemia, Infections, and Breech position, which can be taken care of by the regular medical check-up of the would-be mother. To reduce Infant Mortality Rate in 2023, doctors and physicians must promptly focus on disseminating information on such complications to the parents.
Injuries: This may happen after birth, including suffocation, head injuries, etc. Again doctors & nurses can easily avoid such injuries.
After discussing the fundamental reasons for infant mortality, we can efficiently deal with it. It just takes a little more knowledge and proper medical care. It does not take a lot to do; however, failing to do this can cause a death of a life.
Now let us go further and see the small, easy changes we can make to create a world with more young people.
How can we decrease the Infant Mortality Rate in 2023?
Firstly, a mother should be healthy enough to carry a child in her womb. Hence, the mother must eat and think healthily once the pregnancy is confirmed.
In 2022, we also saw a tendency to kill female fetuses in many places. We need to know that there is a balance required everywhere. We have been through such scenarios where female infant killing is normal to their family member. Hence, the fetus dedication should be our first goal to the hour, and eventually, proper parental education by medical staff or NGOs can modify the scenarios.
It is crucial to train a would-be mother for afterbirth child care. Earlier, the house elders used to take charge; however, in today’s nuclear generation, it is essential to know how to handle things for a newborn. We see scenarios where the mother is unaware of an infant’s feeding or bathing system resulting in complications in the child’s health.
Eventually, breastmilk has a magical power to clarify 99 percent of health hazards for a newborn; adding to this, it also makes an infant stronger to come to the battleground of survival of the fittest. Last but not least, being a mother is not easy. Now we know how a small change can create magic toward decreasing the Infant Mortality Rate in 2023.
Several programs have been rolling since 1997 in India, where Govt. of India introduced the “Reproductive and Child Health” program to reduce infant, child, and maternal mortality.
Several organizations have dedicated themselves to child care and child care studies. Several Medical Conferences are happening yearly regarding Pediatrics, Pediatricians, and Child Care Organisations, and they can submit the latest research work to the world.
One such World Pediatrics Conference 2023 is happening in Singapore on September 08-09, 2023. Interested researchers, pediatricians, and experts can submit abstracts if they want to speak at the prestigious Asian Conference 2023.
To conclude this topic, we need to summarize the work that we must remember to contribute to decreasing the Infant mortality rate in 2023.
- Would-be mothers play a significant role here, so our duty is to keep her physically and mentally healthy.
- Vitamin and mineral deficiency causes many hazards to a mother, newborn, or infant. Hence, healthy food is needed, and breastfeeding is essential.
- Newborn jaundice is another reason to be mentioned here. Though it is not harmful most of the time, a very high level of bilirubin can damage a newborn’s brain.
- Proper medical attention from a trained staff is also an essential factor; failing to do this can be life-threatening. Hence, adequate knowledge of things is required, and we must reach out to the maximum family, would-be mothers. Adding to this, it would be great if a center could look after an individual to have proper transportation & communication in their time of need.
- Fetus dedication should be stopped.
- A pregnant lady should always look for a hospital to give birth to and not to a “Dai ma.”
The U.S.A & Europe has the lowest mortality rate in the world. It takes a little more awareness, and we can create the miracle right from the next minute.
