TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Chapter 41. Neonatal Mortality and Morbidity A1 - Fanaroff, Avroy A. A2 - Rudolph, Colin D. A2 - Rudolph, Abraham M. A2 - Lister, George E. A2 - First, Lewis R. A2 - Gershon, Anne A. PY - 2011 T2 - Rudolph's Pediatrics, 22e AB - Infant mortality is an important outcome measure of the health services of a population. In the United States, where there are approximately 4 million births each year, the infant mortality is around 7 per 1000 live births. The highest risk of infant death is within 24 hours of birth, but mortality and morbidity remain high during the neonatal period, from birth to the 28th day of life. In the United States each year, nearly 1% of pregnancies are complicated by fetal death and about 0.5% by neonatal mortality.1-8The fetus and newborn are most vulnerable during labor, delivery, and the neonatal period because central nervous system injury may result in lifelong morbidity and neurodevelopmental impairment. The perinatal period, from 28 weeks of gestation to the 28th day of life, is the period of greatest mortality. In the modern era, with survival of extremely-low-birth-weight infants, postneonatal mortality also contributes significantly to the infant mortality rate. SN - PB - The McGraw-Hill Companies CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/28 UR - accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=6734072 ER -