Since 1933, when a noteworthy increase in the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) was observed, the historical trend of the IMR has been steady or sometimes rapidly decline. The IMR dropped by an average of 4%/year, through the 1930s and 1940s. The rate of decline slowed noticeably to 1%/ year from 1950 to 1964. Afterwards, IMR declined rapidly, by an average of almost 5%/ year until the early 1980s. Although the pace of decline has slowed somewhat since the mid-1990s, significant declines in late fetal mortality and infant mortality have been observed through 2001 despite substantial increases in...