Unhealthy mothers blamed for high rate of baby deaths

HUNDREDS of babies are dying needlessly in England every year because their mothers smoke, drink, use drugs, or are obese, a study suggests.

Researchers from UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health compared death rates of under-fives to those in Sweden, a country with similar levels of economic development and healthcare.

They found that deaths occur one and a half times more often in England, equating to 600 extra deaths a year.

Writing in The Lancet, the study authors said that poorer maternal health during pregnancy caused babies to be born prematurely and with a low birth weight. Children in England are also more likely to have birth anomalies such as congenital heart defects than in Sweden.

“While child deaths are still rare, the UK has one of the highest child mortality rates in western Europe,” said lead author Dr Ania Zylbersztejn of the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.

“Families need to be better supported before and during pregnancy to improve maternal health, and in turn to give all children a healthy start in life.”

The study used data from the NHS and Swedish health services to compare births from 2003 to 2012, and track the children’s health and death records up to their fifth birthday.

The study included more than 3.9 million English births, including 11,392 deaths, and more than one million Swedish births and 1,927 deaths.

Between the ages of two days to four years old, the mortality rate for England was 50 per cent higher – 29 deaths per 10,000 children in England against 19 deaths per 10,000 children in Sweden.

If the child mortality rate was the same in England as in Sweden, 607 fewer child deaths per year would have occurred in England, equivalent to 6,073 fewer deaths from 2003-2012.

The authors said women in Sweden were better at maintaining a healthy weight, eating well, avoiding drugs, alcohol and smoking and keeping their weight down in pregnancy.