Editing Infant (section)

===Mortality===
{{Main|Infant mortality}}
[[File:Babyimmunization.jpg|thumb|An infant being immunized in [[Bangladesh]]]]
Infant mortality is the death of an infant in the first year of life, often expressed as the number of deaths per 1,000 live births (infant mortality rate). Major causes of infant mortality include [[dehydration]], [[infection]], [[Congenital disorder|congenital malformation]] and [[Sudden infant death syndrome|SIDS]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Garrett | first = Eilidh | title = Infant Mortality: A Continuing Social Problem | publisher = Ashgate Pub Co | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-0-7546-4593-1 }}{{page needed|date=July 2015}}</ref>

This [[epidemiology|epidemiological]] indicator is recognized as a very important measure of the level of health care in a country because it is directly linked with the [[health]] status of infants, children, and pregnant women as well as access to medical care, socioeconomic conditions, and [[public health]] practices.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Hertz E, Hebert JR, Landon J | title = Social and environmental factors and life expectancy, infant mortality, and maternal mortality rates: results of a cross-national comparison | journal = Soc Sci Med | volume = 39 | issue = 1 | pages = 105–14 | date = July 1994 | pmid = 8066481 | doi = 10.1016/0277-9536(94)90170-8 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Etchegoyen G, Paganini JM | title = The relationship between socioeconomic factors and maternal and infant health programs in 13 Argentine provinces | language = es | journal = Rev Panam Salud Publica | volume = 21 | issue = 4 | pages = 223–30 | date = April 2007 | pmid = 17612466 | doi = 10.1590/S1020-49892007000300005 | url = http://www.scielosp.org/pdf/rpsp/v21n4/05.pdf | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180421234341/https://scielosp.org/pdf/rpsp/v21n4/05.pdf | archive-date = 2018-04-21 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

There is a positive relationship between national wealth and good health. The rich and industrialized countries of the world, prominently [[Canada]], the United Kingdom, the United States, and [[Japan]], spend a large proportion of their wealthy budget on the health care system. As, a result, their health care systems are very sophisticated, with many physicians, nurses, and other health care experts servicing the population. Thus, infant mortality is low. On the other hand, a country such as Mexico, which spends disproportionately less of its budget on healthcare, suffers from high mortality rates. This is because the general population is likely to be less healthy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Brym|first=Robert|title=Sociology: Your Compass for a New World|year=2007|publisher=Wadsworth/Cengage Learning|page=546|isbn=978-0-495-09912-3}}</ref> In the U.S., infant mortality rates are especially high in minority groups. For instance, non-Hispanic black women have an infant mortality rate of 13.63 per 1,000 live births whereas in non-Hispanic white women it was much lower at a rate of 5.76 per 1,000 live births.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Kuehn | first1 = B. M. | title = Infant Mortality | journal = JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association | volume = 300 | issue = 20 | pages = 2359 | year = 2008 | doi = 10.1001/jama.2008.642 }}</ref> The average infant mortality rate in the U.S. is 6.8 per 1,000 live births.<ref>[http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparemaptable.jsp?ind=47&cat=2 Infant Mortality Rate (Deaths per 1,000 Live Births), Linked Files, 2006–2008] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120612103431/http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparemaptable.jsp?ind=47&cat=2 |date=2012-06-12 }}. statehealthfacts.org</ref>