Public Health Agency welcomes child mortality report, but warns against complacency

The Public Health Agency has welcomed the publication of the UK Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE) Perinatal Mortality 2008 report.

The report acknowledged an encouraging decline over the last 10 years in the frequency of deaths in the first week of life across the UK.

This trend is also reflected in Northern Ireland. This reduction is even more encouraging given the changing risk profile of pregnant women in Northern Ireland, where the proportion of births to older mothers and mothers from outside the UK and Ireland has increased.

The report also found that in 2008 still births and deaths in the first week of life occurred less frequently in Northern Ireland than the rest of the UK.

Dr Carolyn Harper, Director of Public Health at the Public Health Agency, said: “This downward trend is very good news for mothers who should be reassured that the findings reflect good care here in Northern Ireland for mothers and their babies. However, we cannot be complacent and need to continue to address issues such as smoking and obesity in pregnancy. Around 19% of women report smoking during pregnancy here in Northern Ireland, which is a higher than the rate of 15% reported in the maternal population in England”.1,2

Mothers who have experienced still births or neonatal deaths are more likely to be young (under 25), over 40 years of age, live in a deprived socio-economic area or to come from a minority ethnic group.

The reasons behind variations between regions in rates of still birth, neonatal death and congenital anomaly are not known.

1 Management of Women with Obesity in Pregnancy – Clinical Guidelines issued jointly in March 2010 by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and CMACE.

2 As reported in Divided by Health: A City Profile, November 2008. Belfast Health Cities.

The full report and CMACE press release are available to download from www.cmace.org.uk

For further information contact the PHA press office on 029 9031 1611.