An alarming situation. A study by the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED) published this Thursday, March 20, highlights the poor actions of France in terms of infant mortality of its European neighbors.
France occupies the 23rd position in the 27 states of the European Union in terms of infant mortality in 2022, “a marked fall compared to the 1990s, where it was among the best classified countries,” says this study by public organization. “While the trend remains descending in its European neighbors, infant mortality stagnates in France,” the INED said in a statement.
The infant mortality rate (mortality during the first year of life) reached 4.5 per thousand in boys and 3.7 per thousand between girls for all France in 2022, against 3.5 and 3.0 on average in the EU, respectively. A dozen European countries show rates of less than 3 per thousand. “Sweden even shows a infant mortality rate of 2.5 per thousand, almost twice lower than that of France,” said the study published in the Population magazine.
“In the thirty -year space, the French situation has significantly deteriorated. In 1990, France was at the top of the European classification for children’s survival,” says INED. Twenty years later, he still occupied the eighth row for boys and the tenth row for girls. In 2022, it fell respectively to places 24 and 22.
Monitoring of women’s pre -question
This degraded situation is explained by many factors. The INED notably emphasizes that infant mortality is a “key indicator of the quality of perinatal care and public health policies.”
“It can be a problem of attention: studies suggest that women in great precariousness are not well attended during pregnancy,” explains Magali Barbieri, director of research of the AUTED and co -author of the study, at BFMTV.com. “There is a problem of identifying women in precarious environments and monitoring during pregnancy,” he adds.
However, according to the National Institute of Statistics, “the proportion of deliveries covered by health insurance is decreasing, unlike those backed by state medical assistance, a sign of greater social precariousness” and “the proportion of homeless people among women who give birth increases, particularly in the structure of ours.” Therefore, there is a strong problem in the management of these pregnant women.
Another element that can have an impact on infant mortality: the state of health of mothers. Magali Barbieri significantly points out his increasingly age, as well as the increase in obesity and diabetes in France, which are “infant mortality risk factors.” The decrease in fertility also leads to an increase by women who have only one child, while the first pregnancies are more at risk, according to Magali Barbieri.
Recruitment difficulties
In the report of their Flash mission on infant mortality published in 2022, deputies Anne Bergantz and Philippe Juvvin also presented the scarcity of caregivers “, which leads to increased recruitment difficulties in small capacity maternities, weakens the continuity of attention in these structures, an important factor in security and quality of care in perinatal.”
“Specifically, when a midwife is giving birth to a birth, she does not constantly have her eyes in the heart rate of the other five fetuses that she is supposed to continue at the same time,” illustrated in early March, with the new journalist Anthony Cortes, co -author with his suir book of books. 4.1. The scandal of deliveries in France. “Result: they say that they themselves pass more and more next to the warning signals,” he added.
The players of the sector heard by the Flash 2022 mission told them about “the disorganization of services in many small maternity, which has become unattractive for health professionals.” “We have progressed a lot in the neonatalogy, but it requires a team that is not in small maternities,” said Magali Barbieri.
Progress in neonatology could also, paradoxically, explain the increase in infant mortality in France. Due to these advances, “now we can survive babies in a very high prematurity” that does not always survive, but “that it would undoubtedly die before birth and tell as dead” without this progress, develops the specialist in infant mortality.
Magali Barbieri considers that it is difficult to clearly establish the reasons why France wins in this area compared to other European countries, such as Italy or Spain. “It is a combination of factors, everyone plays marginally and all contribute to this phenomenon,” he summarizes.
Source: BFM TV
