Child mortality and survival in South Asia: Nepalese perspective

The book is based on data from the Nepal Fertility Survey carried out by the Nepal Family Planning and Maternal Child Health Project in 1976 in collaboration with the World Fertility Survey. The author has shown that the risk of infant and child death is higher in the Mountain than in the Terai and other regions of Nepal. Education of the mother is found to be an important determinant of child survival.
The author confirms that the higher risk of infant death to first-born children is mainly due to the higher preportions of younger women having first birth, rather than due to their being first order per se. The importance the combined effect of maternal age and parity is also demonstrated in this study. Higher order births to younger women have an excessive risk of infant and child death. The length of previous birth interval, therefore, stands out as the most important factor affecting infant and child mortality; the next important factor is the survival status of the preceding child.
This finding may be useful for future planning and policy decisions aimed at reducing infant and child mortality. The risk of subsequent child death may be substantially reduced if health education programes are designed specifically for families who have suffered a child death. An adequate birth spacing itself may be helpful, but more of direct health. interventions for this group, such as education of mothers in child care and nutrition, may prove effective in reducing the risk of further child death.