The prenatal mortality rates known as one of the most sensitive indices to indicate the status of MCH in a country although Korea is extremely lacking reliable statistics and research on this rate. ´Through search for the research documents on the prenatal mortality, however, the author could barely collect 29 such documents (27 clinical studies and 2 field survey reports) that covered the ;trends since 1950 in Korea.
Some of the major findings from analytical review of the documents collected are as follows.
1. The prenatal mortality rates appearing in those documents compiled on the basis of hospital deliveries were almost confirming each other. These documents reveal such a trend that it fluctuated at the range from 60 to 90 during later part of 1950´s, drastically dropped down to below 60 since early part of 1960´s, and again fundamentally decreased down to around 30 in the recent years.
2. The prenatal mortality rates showed a variation by such factors as the age of mothers, order of birth, complication of pregnancy, and so forth. It was lowest among the mothers of 2529 years of age and among the second births whereas it was higher among the mothers with umbilical cord complication and polyhydramnios. The prenatal mortality is believed to have a strong correlation with the states of receiving prenatal care as is evidenced by the fact´, that it was as four times as high among the mothers who did not receive the prenatal care than among the mothers receiving it.
3. The prenatal mortality seems to have significant correlation with the fetal or neonatal factors, also. All the documents analyzed confirm that it was higher among males than females. The hebdomadal mortality rate was higher among those under 37 weeks of gestational age, and among the low birth weight infants.
4. About two-thirds of the hebdomadal mortality cases took place within 24 hours and about 80% died within 3 days. What is interesting is that the majority of the hebdomadal mortality cases with low birth weight died within 24 hours.
5. Although the causes of prenatal mortality are uncertain due to the low rate of autopsy, it generally reveals that the most frequent cause is immaturity and prematurely from disorders relating: to, the short gestation and unspecified low birth weight.
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