25 Risks related to infant mortality include health and behaviors, infant's weight and number of weeks gestation at birth, presence of birth defects and home environment. The table below shows some risk factors for infant mortality. Birthweight often predicts infant survival and health. A normal pregnancy lasts 38 to 42 weeks. 9 Efforts should be to prolong pregnancy and deliver at term.
Birth Defects Congenital malformations are the leading cause of infant death.
These birth defects account for one of every five infant deaths. 11 Multiple Fetuses Twins, triplets, quadruplets and higher-order multiple gestation infants are usually born lower birth weight and earlier than singletons. 7 One study found that on average, singletons were 39.3 weeks and 3,212 grams, compared with twins at 36.3 weeks and 2,279 grams and higher-order multiples at 33.9 weeks and 1,808 grams. Higher-order multiples have 10 times the rate of dying or being transferred to an intensive care hospital compared with singletons. 18 Tobacco use Smoking tobacco during pregnancy is more likely to result in miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, premature birth, bleeding during childbirth, and increases baby's risk for low birth weight, poor lung development, asthma, infections, and death.