Infant Mortality and Maternal Health - Essay Example

'Infant Mortality and Maternal Health' is an outstanding example of a paper on child development.
Reduction of child mortality and improvement of maternity health are quite important indicators that influence the total health of the population. Eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015 were established during the Millennium Summit in 2000. These goals include decreasing child mortality under the age of 5. Collected data showed that overall under-5 child mortality is quite numerous. For example, the infant mortality rate is 8.1 million children deaths in 2009, 7.6-6.9 million in 2010, and 6.6 million children under-5 deaths in 2012. But, to gain Millennium Developmental targets it is necessary to understand and investigate the main causes of child mortality. The most common reasons for early child mortality are malnutrition, malaria, measles, diarrhea, and respiratory infections. Also one of the reasons is maternal age. Several trials were conducted to research relationships between infant death and maternal age. Two maternal age groups were observed: 30-34 years old and younger than 20 years old. Children at 28 days of age during the neonatal period have higher mortality in the second group of women at age under 20. Child deaths were provoked by low birth weight and different early infant’s diseases. But infant mortality caused by low weight was similar in two groups. At 28 days of age to 11 months, during the postneonatal period when the mortality rate is increased 5.2 cases of children death per 1000 infants were fixed in the second group of young mothers, despite 1 case per 1000 in the first group of older mothers. Maternal age also related to infant death from different infectious diseases. But there is no relation between infant deaths from congenital disorders and maternal age. Therefore, maternal age is a quite critical factor that influences overall children under-5 mortality. 

Infant Mortality and Divorce

Divorce is a long-term, quite dangerous and unpleasant process. Unfortunately, nowadays divorces are quite spread all over the world. For example, in the United States, the divorce rate is approximately 50%. 

Divorce of the parents can influence child health and even provoke infant death. Investigation in this field proved that there is a connection between infant mortality and divorce. Observations on divorce connection with neonatal and postneonatal mortality were conducted with control of parity, maternal age, and sex of the child. A higher rate of neonatal and postneonatal deaths among children occurred when infants were born after divorce or less than 12 months before the mother`s divorce, despite mothers in unharmed marriages. The increased infant mortality in divorced families may be connected with the vulnerability of the woman after divorce. It can affect the overall woman's health during pregnancy and have a bad influence on further child health during the neonatal and postneonatal periods. It also can increase infant susceptibility to different child diseases. Therefore, the total state of the family that is waiting for a child or just has a plan for pregnancy is quite important for the future children as it may improve his health or cause an increased likelihood of child morbidity or even mortality.