Every year in the United States, about 23,000 babies who are born alive do not survive to their first birthday.  An almost equal number of babies are stillborn, without signs of life.  While fetal and infant mortality in the United States has improved, disparities persist between whites and persons of color, especially African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans.  Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) is a community based, action-oriented process aimed at improving services, systems, and resources for women, infants, and families.  FIMR brings a multidisciplinary community team together to examine confidential, de-identified cases of fetal and infant deaths.  Review of individual cases helps teams understand families’ experiences, including racism, and how those experiences may have impacted maternal and child outcomes.

Program Manual
Map of Programs
FIMR in the U.S. Report
Key Facts

Our Role

The National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention is the technical support and data center serving Fetal and Infant Mortality Review through training, resource development, and data support. Click here to learn more.

Process

Fetal and Infant Mortality Review equips communities to improve outcomes and prevent future fatalities through multidisciplinary, in-depth case review. Click here to learn more about the operating principles of FIMR and how it is implemented across the country.

Tools for Teams

The National Center has developed tools to support FIMR teams’ work from start to finish. Click here to find planning tools, tools for investigating deaths, tools for coordinators, prevention tools, and other helpful resources.

Key Facts

Data

The National Fatality Review-Case Reporting System (NFR-CRS) is the data system supporting CDR and FIMR across the country. Click here to learn more about the NFR-CRS and products using fatality review data.

Partners

Fatality review teams are most successful when they’ve engaged a broad, multidisciplinary group of partners. View Common partners.

Center Resources

The National Center develops a wide range of resources to support the work of Child Death Review teams. Click here to explore our guidance documents for teams, webinars, training module series, and other helpful resources.