Quoting "James A. Donald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > Other countries (notably Sweden, to which the > > USA is always being compared) don't "count" a child as born until it > > has reached a certain age (three weeks in Sweden). Guess when most > > infant deaths occur? > > Interesting datum. Could you give a source for this. If true, needs > wide publicity, since we web search for "infant mortality" and Sweden > gives a zillion hits, all saying what you would expect.
I would also like to see a source for the claim, as this is something I've never heard before. According to SCB, the Swedish official department of statistics, the definition of "infant mortality" is "all deaths which occur before the child is one year old". I couldn't find that definition in English on the department's web page, though. The Swedish definition is in <http://www.scb.se/statinfo/1999/Be0101.asp> (under the term "spädbarnsdödlighet") I did find an English translation of the definition of a live birth, though. <http://www.scb.se/publkat/filer/be79sa0201%5F01.pdf> Section 3, "Definitions and concepts" "A live birth refers to a newborn who after the birth has breathed or showed any other evidence of life such as active hearthbeat, pulsation in the umbilical cord or definite movement of volontary muscles. The definition is valid regardess of the duration of pregnancy and the maturity of the child. A stillbirth is a newborn who has died before or during delivery and after teh end of the 28th gestational week calculated from the first day of the latest normal menstruation. If there is uncertainty regarding gestational age, the length of the foetus is an important factor in the assessment. If the length of foetus is at least 35 centimeters, it will generally be counted as a child." It would seem as we indeed count the child as born directly from, well, birth... - Sten
