From the increase in neonatal mortality to the particularly worrying situation in Overseas France, a look back at the main findings of this survey.
Increase in infant mortality
The situation of infant mortality worries the health authorities. This is one of the alarming findings of the 162-page document, which confirms the results of recent scientific publications. Neonatal mortality has increased in recent years, from 1.6 deaths per 1,000 births in 2010 to 1.8 in 2019 in mainland France. The increase focuses on the first week of life, “which raises the question of access to care, pregnancy monitoring and support for women after birth”, notes one of the authors, Dr Anne Gallay, director of non-communicable diseases and trauma at Santé Publique France.
A finding that is particularly worsening in the overseas departments, the situation is twice as critical: between 3.3 and 4.4 deaths per 1,000 births are recorded, depending on the year, during the decade observed. This is a “worrying result”, points out SPF, which confirms that France is at the “bottom of the pack” on this indicator compared to its European neighbors. How to explain it? At this point, few answers. “Work is underway to try to understand this worrying development,” says Nolwenn Regnault, another author of the report, head of the “Perinatal, early childhood and mental health” unit at SPF.
Perinatal health surveillance report in France ⏩ https://t.co/J82Ho829bQ RT @SantePublicFr #perinatality pic.twitter.com/9MYABWG8sR
— IREPS Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (@irepsara) September 22, 2022
Major risk factors
Credit Photo – Pexels / Pixabay
Everyone knows it, we keep reminding it, but exposure to tobacco during pregnancy remains one of the major risk factors for maternal morbidity. Admittedly, the rate of smoking before pregnancy has been falling since 1995: it went from 39% of future mothers in 1995 to 30% in 2016. But, “only 50% of pregnant women stop smoking during pregnancy, a trend that remains steady. We need to intervene further upstream,” notes Nolwenn Regnault. Here again, France is the worst student in Europe. These trends suggest that prevention should be reinforced among smokers planning a pregnancy, so that they increase their chances of quitting smoking when they are pregnant.
But it’s not just smoking that wreaks havoc. There is an increase in the proportion of people progressing to very severe obesity, with 2% of women in the general population who were severely obese in 2016, compared to 1.3% in 2006. However, according to data from According to the 2012 Epifane study conducted by the Institut de Veille Sanitaire and the University of Paris-XIII, obese women are 3 times more likely than women with a normal BMI to suffer from severe complications during pregnancy (gestational diabetes, arterial hypertension, recourse to caesarean section, etc.). Between 1998 and 2016, the proportion of women who gave birth with a normal BMI before pregnancy decreased from 68.0% in 2003 to 60.8% in 2016.
The precariousness of mothers is getting worse, the Overseas are worried
But that’s not all. Concerning the indicator of the precariousness of mothers, no national table, but a regional focus underlined in the report. In 5 years, the proportion of homeless women giving birth has jumped, with a rate rising from 0.58% in 2015 to 2.28% in 2019. The increase is particularly significant in Paris, with +4.14 points. It has also been spotted in recent years by associations fighting against poverty and health professionals, who have stepped up to the plate. It is impossible, however, warns SPF, to know what is the real increase or the improvement of identification thanks to the “coding work” provided by clinicians.
[#OpenData] ???? New indicators on the #Perinatal Health regionally are available on #Geodes #Perinatality.
???? To consult them https://t.co/sOUO9xEcGl pic.twitter.com/Ivr0Kcqngf– SantépubliqueFrance (@SantePublicFr) September 22, 2022
The interest of the report, in addition to the national table that it presents, is to detail data at the territorial level. However, on many indicators, the DROMs occupy a special place, with less good results than in mainland France. The picture is particularly gloomy in Guyana and Mayotte, even if, in the latter department, a good deal of data could not be gathered satisfactorily over the entire period. “The situation in the DROMs requires special attention”, recognize the authors of the report. A publication devoted to the analysis of local contexts in Overseas France will also be the subject of a specific publication in the coming months.
