Outcome of delivery and cause-specific mortality and severe morbidity in early infancy: a Kenyan District Hospital birth cohort.

It has proven very difficult to determine the causes of early infant mortality and morbidity in Africa. We undertook a two-year, prospective birth cohort study in a rural Kenyan District Hospital to estimate cause-specific mortality and severe morbidity in infants too young to gain benefit from routine immunization approaches. A total of 2,359 infants eligible for the cohort were delivered.