U’khand records rise in infant mortality rate

DEHRADUN: The infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the number of deaths of children under one year of age per 1,000 live births, has registered a rise in Uttarakhand. A new survey has found that the infant mortality rate has risen slightly in the past two years. While the IMR was recorded at 32 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2014, it has reached 33 in 2016, according to the Sample Registration System 2016 report recently released by the ministry of home affairs.
The state has also recorded a high early neonatal mortality rate (ENMR) with two-third (63%) of the deaths occurring within four weeks of birth while 5% of these children die within 24 hours of birth.
Among the districts with high IMR were Dehradun, Nainital and Haridwar. Health department officials said that increase in migrants and home deliveries are partly to blame. “A number of migrants come to these districts in search of better prospects but not all can get good jobs. Many of them, including pregnant women, end up living in slums and suffer from anaemia, malnutrition etc,” said a health department officer.
Dr Saroj Naithani, joint director, national programme, added, “Our preliminary findings show that Uttarakhand has recorded 37% home deliveries in this time period and that is where things must have gone wrong. We are still unsure whether these deliveries were by trained professionals.”
Another officer of the health department said that the majority of infant deaths in the state happened within four weeks of birth due to asphyxia which includes deprivation of oxygen to a newborn that lasts long enough during the birth process to cause physical harm. The infants who died between one to 11 months of birth succumbed to pneumonia (16%), fever (10%) and diarrhoea (4%).
The state received an aid of over Rs 315 crore from the Centre to tackle infant and maternal deaths in 2015 and is expected to get additional funds this year as well.
However, the health facilities in the state, especially the hills, leave much to be desired. In the past one month, three women have died while in labour on the way to hospital in Uttarkashi, Chamoli and Dehradun.