Social and Biological Influences on Foetal and Infant Deaths

Abstract

In this paper I propose to discuss the major influences responsible for foetal and infant deaths and to assess the extent to which these deaths are potentially preventable. This undertaking poses three main difficulties. The first is that a considerable number of deaths are attributed either to ill-defined causes, or to pseudo-specific causes, such as immaturity— which only conceal our ignorance. A second difficulty arises because in some cases where death is associated with a well-recognized condition, such as toxaemia of pregnancy or a congenital malformation, little or nothing may be known about its aetiology. Finally, even where there is considerable knowledge of aetiology, as in the case of a post-natal infection, death cannot without reservation be considered invariably preventable. It is this uncertainty which has led to the use of the somewhat ambiguous term ‘potentially preventable’, which at least has the excuse that it does not claim too much.