Perinatal and neonatal mortality and morbidity in Iraq.

Perinatal mortality rates in Iraq have been extremely high during the last 10 years, although detailed data are not available due to inadequate collection of health information during the Gulf conflict and the period of sanction which has continued since August 1990 until the present. The average perinatal mortality rate for Iraq was estimated to be 28 per 1000 live births during the period 1980-90 (the period before sanctions). This rate is similar to the rate in other countries in the region in the same period. The average perinatal mortality rate during the period 1990-1999 is estimated to be 107 per 1000 live births, which is quite high. The important causes of neonatal death are low birth weight, perinatal infections and birth asphyxia due to fetal hypoxia. Many of these deaths can be avoided with simple, practical and affordable interventions, such as a reduction in deaths due to infections by early and exclusive breast feeding, screening and management of communicable diseases, by use of tetanous toxoid and good cord care, and improvement of antenatal care by rebuilding new primary health centers, by the introduction of new equipment for diagnosis and management of birth problems, especially infectious diseases, by the improvement of survival rates of low-birth-weight infants, by a reduction of birth asphyxia with trained birth attendants to monitor labor and to resuscitate infants.