Annually, 1,700 still births are reported and another 1,550 infants die within the first week of their birth in Sri Lanka, the Past President of the Perinatal Society of Sri Lanka and the Chairperson of the - Expert Committee on Ergonomics, Sri Lanka Medical Association, Consultant Community Physician Dr. Kapila Jayaratne ( MBBS, MSc, MD (Com.Med) said.
According to Dr. Jayaratne, the majority of the deaths are reported from premature babies. The reason for over 35 percent of still births and the deaths of newborns are yet to be found out. Congenital diseases are one of the common reasons for many deaths of infants.
Many such deaths can be prevented through accurately identifying congenital diseases. It can be done only through performing a post-mortem examiniations and conducting a gene test. State hospitals perform post-mortem free of charge but both parents and health staffs do not render their cooperation since they do not have required knowledge on this issue, he said.
Postmortem examinations do not distort the dead body of the infant and only few cuts are made. The cuts are not visible to outside.
Furthermore there is no delay caused to release the body of the infant to the parents.
Parents' consent is required to perform the post-mortem examination. The gene test can be performed by obtaining just five millilitres of blood from the baby or the parents, he added.
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