Causes of infant mortality in Mexico in the XIX and XX centuries

Alejandro Aguirre, El Colegio de México

Vital statistics as well as parish records can be used to observe a phenomenon during a period that comprises the predominance of one or the other source of information. The former present the panorama of the evolution of causes of infant deaths during most of the XX Century, especially after the 1920s. The latter give an opportunity to get a proxy –for a limited region and period, and with rudimentary ascertainment of causes of death-- to account for the process of epidemiologic transition of infant mortality in Mexico. Events like outbreaks are reflected in the church records through variations in causes of death during such periods.