Mortality and Morbidity

Infant mortality is defined as death occurring during the first year of life and is an important summary reflecting social, political, health care delivery and medical outcomes in a geographic area. Infant deaths can be further classified into neonatal (0-27 days) and postneonatal (28 days-under 1 year) periods. Neonatal mortality is typically associated with events surrounding the prenatal period and the delivery, whereas postneonatal deaths are more likely to be associated with conditions or events that arise after the delivery and may reflect environmental factors. Other measures of mortality associated with infant health provided on PeriStats include late fetal mortality (28 or more weeks of gestation) and perinatal mortality (fetal deaths of 28 or more weeks gestation and infant deaths in the first 7 days of life). PeriStats also provides data on maternal mortality, reflecting deaths occurring during pregnancy, childbirth or the postpartum period.