Almost 4 French infants die for every 1,000 births, a rate far higher than in other European countries. Alarming figures revealed by a study by the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), which scientists are struggling to explain.
In France, for the first time in peacetime, infant mortality is increasing. In more than 100 years, it had risen only twice: during the First and Second World Wars. With 3.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2019, babies in France die twice as much as in Sweden, Finland and Italy. A paradox when the infant mortality rate is used to measure the development of these countries.
Half of deaths during the first week of life
A study by Inserm published in early March in the journal The Lancet shows that infant mortality decreased until 2005 before stagnating and increasing since 2012. The researchers also note that half of infant deaths occur during their first week of life.
Only assumptions can be made about the reasons for this intriguing rise, to which the newspaper The world dedicate a long article. First, a change in the medical profile of mothers: women are pregnant later and later. The rate of smokers during pregnancy is increasing, as is the number of overweight women. So many factors of natal and prenatal complications.
Another hypothesis, failures linked to an overall degradation of the care circuit. The drop in the number of maternity beds and the number of home visits in France may delay the treatment of complications. ” In many fields of health and prevention, support and service capacities have been reduced “Judges pediatrician Pierre Suesser, co-president of the National Union of Maternal and Child Protection Physicians, quoted by The world.
► To listen also: Priority Health – neonatal mortality
300 “unexpected infant deaths” per year
In the absence of relevant data and studies, however, the phenomenon remains largely unexplained. Unlike the United States or the Nordic countries, France has neither a birth register nor medical data linked to civil status.
Unexpected infant death remains the leading cause of infant mortality in France, with 300 deaths per year. Many professionals are calling on the public authorities to look into the roots of this excess mortality in a developed country.