Infant mortality

Infant mortality is the "rate of deaths occurring in the first year of life". (reference for quote: Medline-Plus Medical dictionary (an on line service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health). Human infancy is defined in the health sciences as the first year of life, and a death rate is calculated over a period of time and according to a defined population. The death rate of infants is an important measure in pediatrics, often referred to when physicians analyse childhood diseases and congenital defects, but is also an important measure in demographics, and is often referred to by historians, politicians, and civic planners, who use this number as an indicator.