SIDS

SIDS –Sudden Infants Death Syndrom Infant mortality refers to deaths of children under the age of one year. It is measured by the infant mortality rate, which is the total number of deaths to children under the age of one year for every 1,000 live births. The infant mortality rate is often broken down into two components relating to timing of death: neonatal and postneonatal. The neonatal mortality rate refers to the number of deaths to babies within 28 days after birth (per 1,000 live births). Sometimes a special type of neonatal mortality is assessed. The perinatal mortality rate measures the number of late fetal deaths (at or after 28 weeks gestation) and deaths within the first 7 days after birth per 1,000 live births. The postneonatal mortality rate involves the number of deaths to babies from 28 days to the end of the first year per 1,000 live births. The distinction between neonatal (and perinatal) and postneonatal mortality is important because the risk of death is higher close to the delivery date, and the causes of death near the time of birth/delivery are quite different from those later in infancy. Therefore, effective interventions to reduce infant mortality need to take into account the distribution of ages at death of infants. Many developing countries lack the resources to keep track of infant deaths; therefore data for these areas are estimates only. Another methodological problem in measuring infant mortality is ascertaining the number of live births. Sometimes this problem is one of undercounts of births (i.e., births are not registered and thus not counted); sometimes the difficulty lies in inconsistently differentiating stillbirths and live births, especially across countries because this distinction is not as clear-cut as one might imagine Kids Health: http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sleep/sids.html