Editing Infant mortality (section)

===Brazil===
{{One source|section|talk=|date=July 2023}}
In certain rural developing areas, such as northeastern Brazil, infant births are often not recorded, resulting in the discrepancies between the infant mortality rate (IMR) and the actual number of infant deaths. Access to vital registry systems for infant births and deaths is an extremely difficult and expensive task for poor parents living in rural areas. Government and bureaucracies tend to show an insensitivity to these parents and produce broad disclaimers in the IMR reports that the information has not been properly reported, resulting in discrepancies. Little has been done to address the underlying structural problems with the vital registry systems regarding the lack of reporting in rural areas, which has created a gap between the official and popular meanings of child death.<ref name="Nations" />

It is also argued that the bureaucratic separation of vital death recording from cultural death rituals is to blame for the inaccuracy of the infant mortality rate (IMR). Vital death registries often fail to recognize the cultural implications and importance of infant deaths. These systems can be an accurate representation of a region's socio-economic situation, if the statistics are valid, which is unfortunately not always the case. An alternate method of collecting and processing statistics on infant and child mortality is via "popular death reporters" who are culturally linked to infants and may be able to provide more accurate statistics.<ref name="Nations" /> According to [[Ethnography|ethnographic]] data, "popular death reporters" refers to people who had inside knowledge of ''anjinhos'', including the grave-digger, gatekeeper, midwife, popular healers etc.—all key participants in mortuary rituals.<ref name="Nations" /> Combining the methods of household surveys, vital registries, and asking "popular death reporters" can increase the validity of child mortality rates. However there remain barriers that affect the validity of statistics of infant mortality, including political economic decisions: numbers are exaggerated when international funds are being doled out; and underestimated during reelection.<ref name="Nations" />{{Failed verification|date=July 2023}}

The bureaucratic separation of vital death reporting and cultural death rituals stems, in part, from [[structural violence]].<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Farmer PE, Nizeye B, Stulac S, Keshavjee S |date=October 2006 |title=Structural violence and clinical medicine |journal=PLOS Medicine |volume=3 |issue=10 |pages=e449 |doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030449 |pmc=1621099 |pmid=17076568 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Individuals living in rural areas of Brazil need funds for lodging and travel in order to report births to a Brazilian Assistance League office, this deters registration as often these individuals are of lower income and cannot afford such expenses,<ref name="Nations" /> similar barriers exist when choosing to report infant mortality. Financial constraints such as reliance on [[food supplement]]ations may also lead to skewed infant mortality data.<ref name="Nations" />

In developing countries such as Brazil the deaths of impoverished infants are regularly not recorded into the countries vital registration system, which skews statistics. Culturally validity and contextual soundness can be used to ground the meaning of mortality from a statistical standpoint.{{clarify|date=July 2023}} In northeast Brazil they have accomplished this standpoint while conducting an ethnographic study combined with an alternative method to survey infant mortality. These types of techniques can develop quality data that will lead to a better portrayal of the IMR of a region.<ref name="Nations" />

Political economic reasons have been seen to skew the infant mortality data in the past when governor Ceara devised his presidency campaign on reducing the infant mortality rate during his term in office. By using this new way of surveying, these instances can be minimized and removed, overall creating accurate and sound data.<ref name="Nations" />{{relevance inline|date=July 2023}}