Survival of children around the time of their mother’s death in rural South Africa
Abstract: In some poorer countries young children are more likely to die in the period surrounding the death of their mother. This study confirms that finding and clearly demonstrates in one Southern African population that the months before a mother’s death, when she is seriously ill, are at least as risky as the months following her death.
The study was carried out in a large socio-economically disadvantaged area in northeast South Africa near the border with Mozambique. The findings are based on fifteen years of information (1994-2008) during which 1,244 children died (3% of the total population studied). Data came from the Agincourt health and demographic surveillance system run by the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand.
The findings demonstrate that the period in which children are most likely to die began 6 – 11 months before their mother’s death. There were three distinct periods with a much higher probability (odds) of death: the period 1 – 2 months before their mother’s death (7-fold increase in odds of dying), the month of her death (12-fold increase in odds of dying) and the period 1 – 2 months following her death (7-fold increase in odds of dying). Furthermore, during the five-month period around the time of their mother’s death, children (both boys and girls) aged 0 – 6 months were about nine times more likely to die than children aged 24 – 59 months, and all children were about 1.5 times more likely to die if their mother died of an AIDS-related cause rather than some other cause of death.
These findings are important as they highlight the urgent need for proactive and coordinated community-based interventions to support families, especially vulnerable children, when a mother becomes seriously ill, not just in the period following her death.
