INFANT-MORTALITY AND MOTHERS EDUCATION IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

A bivariate analysis of infant mortality in the 1986/87 Ondo State Dem ographic and Health Survey data indicates that children of secondary s chool graduates experienced a higher rate of infant mortality than chi ldren of less educated mothers. Although this pattern has also been sh own in a few other Demographic and Health Surveys, this paper explores the Ondo State data to explain why infant mortality showed such a cou nterintuitive pattern in relation to maternal education. This search f or an explanation of the pattern started with an examination of the da ta for errors and then proceeded to examine the importance of some int ermediate mechanisms that had been suggested for the education-child s urvival relationship. The results suggested that data errors, use of h ealth services and quality of maternal care were not enough to explain the relationship. Rather, results of a logistic regression analysis s howed that breastfeeding duration and maternal age at childbirth were statistically the most significant variables for predicting infant sur vival in Ondo State. The inverse relationship between mother's educati on and infant mortality rates that was not shown by bivariate analysis came out clearly only after controlling for the effect of breastfeedi ng duration. The linkage between these findings and broader social and economic realities of Nigeria was provided through reviews of availab le information. The conclusion from the study was that, although breas tfeeding and maternal age showed up as the most statistically signific ant variables, they apparently are just the variables that effectively captured the effects of the harsh economic conditions, especially amo ng secondary school graduates, that prevent most young mothers from tr anslating their child-rearing ideals into reality.