Editing Infant mortality (section)

===Europe and US===
{|class="wikitable floatright" style="width: 40%; text-align:left"
|+Requirements for reporting a live birth, United States and selected European countries, 2004<ref>{{Cite report |url=https://www.europeristat.com/images/doc/EPHR/european-perinatal-health-report.pdf |title=European Perinatal Health Report |last=Euro-Peristat Network |date=2004 |pages=40 |access-date=March 8, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite report |url=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus08.pdf |title=Health United States, 2008 with special feature on the health of young adults. |last=US Department of Health and Human Services |date=2009 |pages=193 |access-date=March 8, 2019}}</ref>
! Reporting requirement
!Country
|-
| style="width: 50%;" | All live births || style="text-align:left;"| Austria, Denmark, England and Wales, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, United States
|-
| style="width: 50%;" | Live births at 12 weeks of gestation or more|| style="text-align:left;"| Norway
|-
| style="width: 50%;" | Live births at 500 grams birthweight or more, and less than 500 grams if the infant survives for 24 hours|| style="text-align:left;"| Czech Republic
|-
| style="width: 50%;" | Live births at 22 weeks of gestation or more, or 500 grams birthweight or more|| style="text-align:left;"| France
|-
| style="width: 50%;" | All live births for civil registration, births at 500 grams birthweight or more for the national perinatal register|| style="text-align:left;"| Ireland
|-
| style="width: 50%;" | Live births at 22 weeks of gestation or more, 500 grams birthweight or more if gestational age is unknown|| style="text-align:left;"| Netherlands
|-
| style="width: 50%;" | Live births at 500 or more grams birthweight|| style="text-align:left;"| Poland
|-
|}
The inclusion or exclusion of high-risk neonates from the  reported IMRs can cause problems in making comparisons. Many countries, including the United States, Sweden and Germany, count any birth exhibiting any sign of life as alive, no matter the [[gestational age|month of gestation]] or neonatal size. All of the countries named in the table adopted the WHO definitions in the late 1980s or early 1990s,<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Duc G |year=1995 |title=The crucial role of definition in perinatal epidemiology |journal=Sozial- und Präventivmedizin |volume=40 |issue=6 |pages=357–60 |doi=10.1007/BF01325417 |pmid=8578873 |s2cid=35350473}}</ref> and they are used throughout the European Union.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of data collected in the European Union, see item 8 |url=http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_projects/2001/monitoring/fp_monitoring_2001_a1_frep_01_en.pdf |website=Europa (web portal)}}</ref> However, in 2009, the US CDC issued a report that stated that the American rates of infant mortality were affected by the high rates of premature babies in the United States compared to European countries. It also outlined the differences in reporting requirements between the United States and Europe, noting that France, the Czech Republic, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Poland do not report all live births under 500&nbsp;g and/or 22 weeks of gestation.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-11-04 |title=Preemies Raise U.S. Infant Mortality Rate |url=http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20091103/preemies-raise-us-infant-mortality-rate |access-date=2009-11-04 |website=WebMD |vauthors=Hendrick B}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2009-11-03 |title=Premature births worsen US infant death rate |agency=Associated Press |url=http://www.denverpost.com/food/ci_13707079 |vauthors=Stobbe M}}</ref><ref name="pmid21058532">{{Cite journal |vauthors=MacDorman MF, Mathews TJ |year=2010 |title=Behind international rankings of infant mortality: how the United States compares with Europe |journal=International Journal of Health Services |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=577–88 |doi=10.2190/HS.40.4.a |pmid=21058532 |s2cid=3190009 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2027/uc1.31210022969875}}</ref> However, differences in reporting are unlikely to be the primary explanation for the high rate of infant mortality in the United States compared to countries at a similar level of economic development. Rather, the report concluded that the primary reason for the higher infant mortality rate in the US compared to Europe was the much higher number of preterm births.<ref name="pmid21058532" />

Until the 1990s, Russia and the Soviet Union did not count, either as a live birth or as an infant death, extremely premature infants that were born alive but failed to survive for at least seven days (infants born weighing less than 1,000&nbsp;g, of less than 28 weeks gestational age, or less than 35&nbsp;cm in length, who that breathed, had a heartbeat, or exhibited voluntary muscle movement).<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Anderson BA, Silver BD |year=1986 |title=Infant Mortality in the Soviet Union: Regional Differences and Measurement Issues |journal=Population and Development Review |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=705–38 |doi=10.2307/1973432 |jstor=1973432}}</ref> Although such extremely premature infants typically accounted for only about 0.5% of all live-born children, their exclusion led to an estimated 22%–25% lower reported IMR.{{efn|In 1990, the Baltic states moved to the WHO standard definition; in 1993 Russia also moved to this definition.}} In some cases, too, {{Speculation inline|date=July 2023|text=perhaps because}} hospitals or regional health departments were held accountable for lowering the IMR in their [[Catchment area (human geography)|catchment area]], infant deaths that occurred in the 12th month were "transferred" statistically to the 13th month (i.e., the second year of life), and thus no longer classified as an infant death.<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Blum, Alain |year=1987 |title=Une nouvelle table de mortalité pour l'URSS (1984-1985) |journal=Population (French Edition) |volume=42 |issue=6 |pages=843–862 |doi=10.2307/1532733 |jstor=1532733}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Demographic Trends and Patterns in the Soviet Union before 1991 |vauthors=Ksenofontova NY |publisher=Routledge |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-415-10194-3 |veditors=Lutz W, Scherbov S, Volkov A |location=London |pages=359–378 |chapter=Trends in infant mortality in the USSR}}</ref>