ABSTRACT
Internationally, the overall death rate ranges from 18 per 1,000 (West Africa) to 6 per 1,000 (East Asia), with most countries around the 9–11 per 1,000 range (figures for 1989; Aiken, 1991). In the United States and Canada, 14%–18% of pregnancies end in the spontaneous death of the fetus (Neugebauer et al., 1992). Infant mortality ranges from a low of 4.8 per 1,000 live births in the most developed countries to 161 per 1,000 in the least developed countries (World Health Organization [WHO], 1995).
