The reported causes for neonatal death in hospitals of Isfahan province in 2005

Background: Improving the neonatal health and reducing the neonatal mortality rate is valuable for not only health reasons, but social, psychological and economic reasons. It has advantages not just for the neonatal period of life but for the whole life. Unfortunately in Iran, in spite of efforts, there has been little success in decreasing the neonatal mortality rate. Since investigating the causes of neonatal mortality is important for planning interventions, this study aimed to find the reported causes of neonatal death in the hospitals of Isfahan province. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study in which all the neonates who died in the hospitals of Isfahan province were selected by headcount method and data were extracted from their files by using a questionnaire. Results: The most neonate death was in the hospitals with NICU wards (43.4%) and most frequent reasons for neonatal death were problems of prematurity (44.6%, 42.6%) and congenital malformations (23.5%, 21.3%) in hospitals with and without NICU departments in Isfahan city, respectively; in hospitals of other cities in the province, most frequent reasons for neonatal death were problems of prematurity (47.5%) and Respiratory Distress Syndrome (18.1%). Conclusion: To achieve the important goal, reducing the neonatal mortality rate, there should be more efforts to improve the number and quality of NICU departments and prevent preterm birth. Also, there should be emphasis on necessity of health care before and during pregnancy and genetic consultations.