Child mortality

[Granny23]

'BRITAIN has the worst child mortality rate in western Europe, according to new international figures.

The UK has 5.3 deaths per 1,000 live births and lags behind other high income countries, the research shows.

Although the rate is not rising, those behind the research said the level of neo-natal care in Britain needed examination.'

from today's Scotsman

What can we do about this scandal?

We have already started to decrease the number of embryos implanted during each IVF cycle - that is a start. We have the highest IVF rates in Western Europe, high levels of inequality, a high teenage pregnancy rate and high levels of obesity, smoking and drinking during pregnancy, which are all confounding factors. Unless the study adjusts for the fact that our maternal population is higher risk, which it doesn't seem to do (I have gone to the primary source) then I don't think we can just start blaming neo-natal care in this country and calling it scandalous. We can assess whether neo-natal care is geared towards the high risk groups appropriately ("why should a teenage smoker get extra care") or we can increase the pre-natal public health campaigns ("nanny state, nanny state")... such attempts are always met with resistance.

I think this is just another (horribly sad) symptom of a larger public health problem we have and what we can do about that is very complex and difficult.

I'm interested Granny23, but do you have a link? I've been to the website but can't see anything about this story.

I agree with Hippy - it's a symptom (albeit a massive, very unfortunate one) of a bigger problem.

Smoking, drinking, obesity, unhealthy diet, lack of BFing etc. Obviously I'm not saying all infant mortality is somebody's fault, but it all contributes to higher risk.

It's really frustrating when any campaign to improve the health of the nation is met with "GRRRRRR Nanny State" etc. We're getting very belligerent.

My DH made me laugh when he said this:

Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day.
Give a man a rod, and he'll eat for life.
Give an Englishman a fish, and he'll eat for a day.
Give an Englishman a rod, and he'll stick it up your arse and say "where's my fuckin fish?!"