WordNet
n. the death rate during the first year of life [syn: infant deathrate, infant mortality rate]
Wikipedia
Infant mortality refers to deaths of young children, typically those less than one year of age. It is measured by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the number of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births.
The leading causes of infant mortality are birth asphyxia, pneumonia, term birth complications, neonatal infection, diarrhea, malaria, measles and malnutrition. Many factors contribute to infant mortality, such as the mother's level of education, environmental conditions, and political and medical infrastructure. Improving sanitation, access to clean drinking water, immunization against infectious diseases, and other public health measures can help reduce high rates of infant mortality.
Child mortality is the death of a child before the child's fifth birthday, measures as the Under-5 Child Mortality Rate (U5MR). National statistics sometimes group these two mortality rates together. Globally, ten million infants and children die each year before their fifth birthday; 99% of these deaths occur in developing nations.
Infant mortality rate was an indicator used to monitor progress towards the Fourth Goal of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations for the year 2015. It is now a target in the Sustainable Development Goals for Goal Number 3 ("Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages").
Usage examples of "infant mortality".
Given the high rate of infant mortality, this allegation was hard to refute, and a grieving mother might easily blame the midwife for the death of her infant.
Deaths in childbirth and infant mortality have decreased, lifetimes have lengthened, and medicine has improved the quality of life for billions of us all over the planet.
Now compare that to humans, and you can see that they must have either a tremendous rate of population growth, or a high infant mortality rate.