Perinatal mortality

Perinatal mortality
Other names	Perinatal death, neonatal death
Infant, neonatal, and postneonatal mortality rates: United States, 1940–2005
Specialty	Public health

Perinatal mortality (PNM) is the death of a fetus or neonate and is the basis to calculate the perinatal mortality rate.^[1] Perinatal means "relating to the period starting a few weeks before birth and including the birth and a few weeks after birth."^[2]

Variations in the precise definition of the perinatal mortality exist, specifically concerning the issue of inclusion or exclusion of early fetal and late neonatal fatalities. The World Health Organization defines perinatal mortality as the "number of stillbirths and deaths in the first week of life per 1,000 total births, the perinatal period commences at 22 completed weeks (154 days) of gestation,^[3] and ends seven completed days after birth",^[4] but other definitions have been used.^[5]

The UK figure is about 8 per 1,000 and varies markedly by social class with the highest rates seen in Asian women. Globally, an estimated 2.6 million neonates died in 2013 before the first month of age down from 4.5 million in 1990.^[6]