In fact, if one considered
just three factors (maternal education, maternal prenatal alcohol or tobacco, and marital status) one could predict to a high degree postneonatal
mortality:
children born to unmarried women with lower education and evidence of prenatal drug use had a postneonatal
mortality of about 30 per 1000 live births (similar to Ivory Coast);
children born to women with none of these risk factors had a postneonatal
mortality of about 2 per 1000 live births (similar to Norway); that is,
children in this latter category almost never die despite evidence from PRAMS surveys that they are as likely to co-sleep with their parents.
He said he was particularly «saddened and disappointed» that the target to halve the gap in Indigenous
child mortality is not on track, with
just one (Year 12 attainment) of seven health and wellbeing targets looking achievable — a worse result than last year.