Child Mortality

            Child mortality is one of the biggest issues in the world at the moment. Even though child mortality rates have gone down throughout the years, the numbers are still high in many countries. One of the countries is the Dominican Republic. One of the most important factors to keep in mind to improve child mortality rates in a country is the improvement of education for women. Statistically speaking, women in the Dominican Republic have very little knowledge about HIV/Aids. In urban areas, only 42.6% of women have a comprehensive knowledge about the sexually transmitted disease, while in rural areas, only 36.7% of women have a comprehensive knowledge.

Another big factor that affects child mortality rate in the Dominican Republic is family planning. When I say family planning, I talk about families not having babies every two years for a long time. There are many families in this country where the parents have more than ten kids. I personally know someone who works in my house that has thirteen siblings. In the near future, if the birth rate goes down in the Dominican Republic, the child mortality rate will go down as well with it.

Child mortality has been taken care of in the last few years, but not enough. This is why it is still such a big problem in many countries. Statistically speaking, the population of the Dominican Republic has had many improvements. For example, since 2011, about 81% of the Dominican population had improved water sources. This has lead to the decrease in sickness due to water pollution. This is especially important for pregnant women. Another example is that since 2011, about 82% of the population had improved sanitation facilities. This has also been crucially important to the decrease in the spreading of germs and disease. All of these factors, believe it or not, affect child mortality in a huge way. As a society, we need to do everything in our power to help the rate go down.