STUDY ON NEONATAL PERIOD (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – Social Issues)

Context: The majority of deaths among children under the age of five in India are now occurring during the early neonatal period (first 7 days) and post-neonatal period (29 days to 11 months), a new study published in JAMA Network Open claimed.

Key Points of Study

• Significant Reduction: Deaths among children decreased substantially from 33.5 to 6.9 deaths per 1,000 between 1993 and 2021, marking a significant improvement.
• Division of Child Mortality Rates: Researchers categorized child mortality rates into four distinct early-life periods: early-neonatal, late-neonatal, post neonatal, and child.
• Decline in Specific Period Mortality: Mortality rates decreased in early neonatal (from 33.5 to 20.3), late neonatal (from 14.1 to 4.1), and post neonatal (from 31.0 to 10.8) periods.
• Shifting Mortality Burden: Majority of child deaths (48.3%) now occur during the early-neonatal period, followed by post-neonatal period (25.6%), highlighting a shift in mortality burden over time.
• Concerns: Certain states and Union Territories (UTs) exhibited stagnation or worsening trends in early-neonatal, late-neonatal, and post neonatal mortality from 2016 to 2021, risking non-fulfillment of UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets.
• UN SDG Targets: UN SDGs aim to reduce child mortality to 25 deaths per 1,000 live births within the first 5 years and 12 deaths per 1,000 live births within the first 28 days by 2030.

Neonatal Period

• About: It is the first 4 weeks of a child's life. It is a time when changes are very rapid.
• Neonatal refers to the period of a new-born's life, which typically lasts from birth until 28 days of age.