Newborn deaths in France much higher than what public data shows

Newborn deaths in France much higher than thought

Newborn deaths in France have been found to be as much as five times higher than what official statistics say, a French team of scientists have said. The study by the National Institute of Health and Medical Research authored by John Cook and Anne Tursz looked at data from 26 French districts covering the period between 1996 and 2000. The total number of birth records they examined represent one-third of the total births during those years in French cities.

They found that newborn deaths, which is technically classified as death of an infant within 24 hours of birth, are 5.4 times more than the government's publicly released data. The researchers found that infants have been dying at a rate of 2.1 per 100,000 births which is a big difference from the official figure of 0.39 deaths per 100,000 births. The official records were based on death certificates, but the team included records from the police and French courts about babies killed by their mothers.

Those women who committed neonaticide had an average age of 26. Almost a third of the women already had a minimum of three children. More than half were living with their husbands and two-thirds of the group had jobs when their babies died. The researchers created a psychological profile of those women as having low self-esteem, dependent and prone to mood swings. Interestingly, none of the mothers have been diagnosed with mental illness. They also tried to hide their pregnancy from close kin and gave birth in secret. All these factors have contributed to the rise of French newborn deaths.

Posted by George Daniels on Thursday December 09 2010, 2:20 AM EST. Ref: Inquirer. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0