The first 28 days of life – the neonatal period – is the most vulnerable time for a child’s survival. The neonatal mortality rate is the ratio of the number of deaths in the first 28 days of life to the number of live births occurring in the same population during the same period of time. Causes of Neonatal Mortality are prematurity & low birth weight, neonatal infections, and birth asphyxia & birth trauma. In Ethiopia, even if a significant reduction in child mortality is recorded recently, the perinatal mortality rate is still very high. This study assessed the magnitude, determinants, and causes of perinatal death in West Gojam zone, Ethiopia.

Methods and materials: A nested case-control study was conducted on 102 cases (mothers who lost their newborns for perinatal death) and 204 controls (mothers who had live infants in the same year) among a cohort of 4097 pregnant mothers in three districts of the West Gojam zone, from Feb 2011 to Mar 2012. Logistic regression models were used to identify the independent determinant factors for perinatal mortality. The World Health Organization verbal autopsy instrument for neonatal death was used to collect mortality data and the cause of death was assigned by a pediatrician and a neonatologist.