3.3 Infant and maternal mortality

First, open this link in a new window and watch the video on global maternal mortality [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

Infants from low income countries have much poorer health than their counterparts in high income countries. Let’s ask a few ‘why’ questions: 

Why do the infants have inferior health? We have indicated some reasons for child death in developing countries in the earlier section. But now we would go to deeper level of causes in order to understand the complexity of the problem. 

We will now focus on the point that the causes have links to a time before the child was born, or even conceived. We need to think of the child and mother as one unit and understand the health of the child also depends on the health on the mother as well.  In developing countries infants have poor health because generally the mothers of those infants have inferior health, in particular anaemia and iron deficiency.

Iron deficiency is one of the most frequently occurring nutritional deficiencies in the world and is reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) to affect four to five billion people. WHO estimates that two billion people suffer from anaemia (a condition in which there is a deficiency of red cells or of haemoglobin in the blood). Approximately 50% of all anaemia is due to iron deficiency, a condition of deteriorating iron reserves in the body caused by low dietary intake of iron, poor absorption of dietary iron, or blood loss (for example, from hookworm, repeated childbirth or heavy menstruation). Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is the most severe form of iron deficiency, and results when the body’s iron supply cannot support production of haemoglobin (an essential component of blood) in adequate amounts to maintain normal functioning of the body.

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Why do the mothers of those infants have inferior health with anaemia and iron deficiency? It is because they are poorly nourished.

Why mothers are poorly nourished?

Because they have low food intake.

Why do they have low food intake? Because they are poor.

You can see that by continuing to ask ‘WHY?, we are able to look beneath the surface and find the ‘causes of the causes’ of infant mortality.

Asking probing questions about these reasons and causes is a way for us to develop a critical understanding of how death (and health) are shaped by a range of factors.

Watch this video animation explaining the ‘Causes of the causes of infant mortality’.

Download this video clip.Video player: opesscreen_2_3.mp4
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3.2 The challenges of child mortality

3.4 The Social Determinants of Health