Dave Garland wrote (about infant mortality in Cuba):
>> It's true, but the US has far more heroic interventions among extremely
>> low birth weight and extremely premature infants than Cuba=2E Which, of
>> course, are far more likely to die than normal births. I suspect that
>> in Cuba, those get counted as miscarriages, not infants.
> Is this just a guess, or do you have reason to suspect that the
> medical definition of "birth" is different in Cuba? Or perhaps it'
> the definition of "death"?
Actually, yes, he does have reason. Many (perhaps most) other countries, even developed ones, use a different standard than the US does in distinguishing between live births and stillbirths. Infant mortality figures apply only to live births which subsequently die, so stillbirths don't count. See
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for more info. For example, almost one-third of US infant deaths happened to very premature babies (less than 1 kg) who wouldn't have even been counted as live births in Switzerland.It seems to me, considering an equal number of premature births, that
> heroic intervention should produce a benefit in the statistics.
Only if they're counted as live births, not stillbirths.
Bob Goudreau Cary, NC