Determinants of Neonatal and Infant Mortality in Bangladesh

Survival of neonatal and infants has always been a challenging issue in developing countries like Bangladesh. Though our country has made praiseworthy success in reducing neonatal and infant mortality rates in the last two decades, still there are some factors that are slowing down the scope of developing the current situation. The risk of dying in the first month of life (30 per 1000) and the infant mortality rate was 3.8 per 1000 live births. The trend of infant and neonatal mortality rates remained stable from 2014 to 2018. Wealth index, sex of deceased child, delivery by cesarean section, size of child at birth, delivery assistance, place of delivery, breastfeeding (within 1 h), postnatal care time, and mother receiving vitamin A are found to be significant at the individual level. However, at the community level, telephone availability, availability of qualified doctors, and contraceptive uses are found significant. Despite the improvement of medical technology, child mortality is still remarkable which indicates that the demographic, socioeconomic, household, and environmental conditions must be improved to substantially reduce neonatal mortality to at least 12 deaths per 1000 live births according to the third sustainable development goal (SDG-3.2.2).