There are strong indications that childhood mortality rate is decreasing in the country following recent figures released by the National Population Commission (NPC) in its 2008 Demographic and Health Survey report.

The report shows that currently only 75 children per 1,000 of live births die before their first birthday. This shows a decline by 25 percent from 99 deaths per 1000 live births in 2003.

Said the report, “Child mortality has fallen slightly from 97 in 2003 to 88 in 2008”.

It also indicates that mortality rates differ by residence.

“The under-five mortality rate for the 10 year period before the survey in  rural areas is 121 deaths per 1000 live births compared to 191 in moral areas”.

Under-five mortality ranges from 89 deaths per 1000 live births in the South West Zone to 222 in the North-East Zone the report further said.

Basically the report indicates that childhood mortality drops with mother’s education. Children of mothers with no education are two or three times more likely to die before age five than those whose mothers have more than secondary education. Childhood mortality also decreases as household wealth increases.

Blaming high child mortality rate on poor spacing of birth intervals by mothers, the report stated that spacing children at least 24 months a part reduces the risk of infant death.

However, it said about one-quarter (24 percent) of infants in Nigeria are born less than two years after a previous birth. Infants born less than two years after a previous birth have particularly high infant mortality rates 135 deaths per 1,000 live births compared with 44 for infants born four years or more after the previous birth.

Consequently, it also indicated that maternal mortality ratio in Nigeria is estimated to be 545 deaths per 100,000 live births