Death rate linked to unplanned birth in poor countries

Reducing infant and child death rates in those areas of the world that operate on an agrarian subsistence economy is an important step that leads to planned smaller families, but it is only 1 of several necessary steps, according to Dr. George Mettrop, consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO). Other important contributory steps toward family planning include better education in health and nutrition and improvement in the economic status of the rural world, he said, in a study prepared for World Population Year, 1974. During the past 20 years, he reported, worldwide research has indicated that high birthrates and high maternal age are associated with high rates of disease and death for mothers and infants in all social classes. A study of 2287 families in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, for example, revealed that in families with 5 or more births, 51% of the children died, while the death rate for children in families with 3 or fewer births was 38%. In Egypt, another study indicated that "parents who lost an infant generally compensated by having more children." Dr. Mettrop was replying to a question frequently asked of WHO: by lowering death rates is not WHO partly responsible for world population growth? His answer, a strong negative, was that reduction in infant mortality and overall improvement in environment health lead couples to serious consideration of the practice of family planning.