Where the High Infant Mortality Rate Trap Might Begin?

Barbora Janakova Kuprova , Charles University
Klára Hulíková Tesárková, Charles University in Prague

The term “High infant mortality trap” was proposed in historical-demographic literature. In families affected by this trap the overall number of births as well as the risk of infant death is on average higher and the birth-birth periods on average shorter in comparison to families with longer birth-birth intervals and lower relative risk of infant death. There could a question arise, where this “spiral” of shorter birth intervals leading to higher average number of births in a family and higher relative risk of infant death starts. The answer could be revealed by the research focused on the risk of infant death of the first-born children in a family. The aim of the paper is to analyze the first-born children in a family and evaluate potential 1) factors standing behind the risk of infant death of those children, and 2) relation of survival of the first-born child in a family to the overall number of children born in the family. The on average higher risk of infant death in the studied populations was already proved for the last-born children in a family. The current study proved the higher risk of infant death also for the first-born children in a family. Moreover, the infant death of the first-born child in a family showed to be related to the overall higher number of as well as to higher risk of infant death of children of higher birth order in the family. Potential reasons of this phenomenon as well as consequences are discussed briefly.

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 Presented in Session 117. Flash Session - Changing Mortality Patterns over Time and Space