NATAL DAY DEATHS

Abstract

Our recent 14-year study of 10,000 neonatal deaths with satisfactory postmortem examinations and complete clinical investigations indicates that too many infants continue to die needlessly, especially during the critical early days of life. We are still doing too little, too late, and not too well for too few in the long neglected field of infant mortality. That is why the present level of early infant deaths still presents a major problem. Those responsible for this failure to reduce early infant mortality include health officers, obstetricians, pediatricians, hospital administrators, and all others concerned with the care of the pregnant woman and her newborn infant. The task that confronts the health officer, whose duty it is to contribute to a reduction in the number of needless infant deaths, is to plan a definite program aimed specifically at reducing the number of such deaths in the areas in which they are most frequent