Dutch newborn death rate among top highest in Europe

Dec 12, 2008, 11:12 GMT

Amsterdam - The newborn death rate in the Netherlands ranks among the highest in Europe, the government-sponsored research institute TNO and Erasmus Medical Centre stated Friday.

Ten out of 1,000 Dutch newborn babies die during or shortly following birth, said researchers, releasing information from a study of 26 European countries to be published Saturday in the Dutch medical journal Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde.

The figure is slightly less than in France and Latvia, which top the list with 11 deaths out of 1,000 newborns.

Luxembourg, Slovakia and Spain have the lowest newborn death rates in Europe, with five out of every 1,000 babies dying.

The researchers attributed the higher Dutch newborn death rates partially to the poor socioeconomic circumstances of the mothers.

Mothers living in problematic urban neighbourhoods have a 20 to 30 per cent higher risk of giving birth to either premature babies or to babies with a low birth weight.

Whether the mother was a Dutch native or originated outside the country appears not to make a significant difference.

However, the relatively advanced age of Dutch mothers also played an important role, the study said, stating that Dutch women are on average 30 years old when bearing their first child.

A third factor listed was the preference of Dutch neonatal specialists to let extremely premature babies die rather than risk their suffering serious handicaps later in life.

Home births, which comprise around 40 per cent of all Dutch births, do not contribute to the newborn death rate, the researchers said.