Clinical Practice 2012, 1(3): 21-24 DOI: 10.5923/j.cp.20120103.02 A Study of Frequency and Causes of Neonatal Mortality Mandana Zafari * , Homeira Akbarzadeh, Maryam Tofighi, Homeira Tahmasebi midwifery department ,Islamic Azad University Sari branch.sari.iran Abstract Therefore in this study, infant mortality rate, and its causes in Bu Ali Hospital, in Sari were investigated.This study is a cross sectional-descriptive-analytical and retrospective one which was done by studying medical records and completed registration form for all infants who were hospitalized during the year 2009 in Bu Ali Hospital. The form of the research consisted of variables such as sex, weight, time of birth, gestational age, cause of death and hospitalization, age at death, maternal age, and type of delivery. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and also Chi-square Test ( ὰ =0.05). In this study, 60 (4/6%) of 1302 hospitalized infants had died. The most common causes of death included cardiac arrest (36/7%), cardiopulmonary arrest (15%), sepsis (10%), and RDS (16/7%). Among neonates who died, 60% were female and 40% were male and 73/7% of infants were underweight. Prematurity and low birth weight are the most constant and the most important determinant in neonate mortality. Keywords Neonates, Mortality, Prematurity, Low Birth Weight (LBW) 1. Introduction Neonatal period (first 28 days after birth) which is the stage of the creation of physiological adaptation to extra uterine life is a vulnerable period and high rates of neonatal mortality comes from the high vulnerability of this period (1). One important indicator of health condition in any society is infant mortality rate. Despite the great efforts made to reduce infant mortality, neonatal mortality still remains high at about 65% of below one year old deaths (2.3). Neonatal mortality forms almost two-thirds (1/5 million) of the 8 million annual deaths of children under one and almost 40% of all deaths of children under 5. And 98% of all neonatal deaths occur in developing countries (4). This amount equals half of live births born in Asia and two-thirds of neonatal deaths worldwide (5). Many studies have been done in this field at home and abroad. In 2008, the infant mortality rate in our country, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, India, China, America, Japan, Sweden, and Singapore, were 36/93,154/67, 42/31, 32/31, 21/ 16, 6/3, 2/ 8, 2/75, and 2/2 respectively (6). The main causes of infant mortality in the study of Fallahzadeh and et al. were as prematurity, congenital malformations, and RDS respectively (7). In Tark’s study, infant mortality rate was 9% and the two leading causes of death were neonatal infections and asphyxia during * Corresponding author: mandanazafari@iausari.ac.ir (Mandana Zafari) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/cp Copyright © 2012 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved childbirth (8). In general, half of the causes of death in the neonatal period were due to low birth weight, prematurity, respiratory problems, congenital abnormalities, and infections (3). Other important factors that raise the risk of infant mortality include maternal infections during pregnancy, maternal age (less than 16 and more than 35 years), maternal drug addiction, social and economic poverty, unmarried mothers, caesarean and etc. (3.1). So many factors are involved in the infant mortality rate that identification of these factors can be effective in reducing mortality and also considering ,Almost these studies just indicated prevalence of infant mortality rate and didn’t report about cause of this death and details related factors, also no study in this field was done in Bu Ali Hospital which is a paediatric centre, the present study was done to investigate the prevalence of some factors on the mortality of hospitalized infants in Sari Bu Ali Hospital in 2009. 2. Materials and Methods This study was a cross sectional-descriptive-analytical and retrospective one and the population of the study included all infants hospitalized in Neonatal Unit and NICU of Sari Bu Ali Hospital in 1387. Medical registration form for research project was set and by reviewing the records, information regarding each child was recorded and the form included questions about gender, birth weight, gestational age, cause of death, age at death, cause of hospitalization, maternal age, and type of delivery.