For a long time, the steady decline in infant mortality was one of the most obvious signs of the progress of science and French society. While in 1945, for every 1,000 live births, more than 50 children died before their first birthday, that figure had dropped to 22 by 1965, then to 10 in 1980, and finally to 3.6 in 2005, marking the lowest point. But, after a period of stagnation, infant mortality in France started to rise again from 2021, reaching 4.1 in 2024 compared to a European average of 3.3 and 2.5 in Sweden (per 1,000 births).
While France was leading in child survival rates in 1990 in Europe, it now finds itself among the worst. Its infant mortality rate ranks 23rd among the 27 European Union states, between Poland and Bulgaria.
The stark statistics hide the distress of the parents of the 2,700 children (1 in 250) who, in 2024, died before the age of one, with nearly three out of four dying within their first month. It is certainly not these grieving families who will sound the alarm about the scandal of this French decline and the deafening silence surrounding it. As if it were just another shadow on the canvas of contemporary woes, the resurgence of infant mortality has not sparked any debate, even though it is a national disgrace.
The promise made in 2022 by then prime minister Elisabeth Borne to make childhood a "priority of the five-year term" was lost in the sands of reshuffling and the dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale in June 2024. The government's "first 1,000 days of the child" strategy does not directly tackle the scourge.
Weaknesses in prevention
Astonishingly, while the causes of the resurgence in infant mortality have been identified, their respective impact has not been clearly evaluated. Broadly speaking, they fall into two categories: organizational, with the continued operation of poorly equipped small maternity units suffering from a severe shortage of doctors, midwives and caregivers, and the growing weakness of the PMI (maternal and child protection) network; and social and societal, with the increase in late or high-risk pregnancies linked to obesity, alcohol consumption, drug use, smoking, poverty and social inequalities, notably affecting mothers born abroad.
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