Postneonatal mortality review in Auckland: two years experience

Postneonatal deaths in the Auckland Region in 1984 and 1985 were reviewed. There were 134 deaths and most deaths could be placed into four broad categories, namely sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS, 80 60%), congenital anomalies (24, 18%), infections (9, 7%) and problems arising in the perinatal period (8, 6%). There was good agreement with the cause of death as recorded by the National Health Statistics Centre (98.5%) Potentially preventable causes of death were infrequent (14, 10%), but notable factors were present in 90% of SIDS. For SIDS cases the following notable factors were identifiable: young mothers, Maori, low socioeconomic status, poor accommodation, frequent changes of address, maternal smoking, previous postneonatal death, poor antenatal care, male infant, low birth weight, twin, poor infant weight gain.