The research, published on bmj.com, revealed rates of both infant death and death before, during, or shortly after birth (perinatal mortality), have not fallen significantly in many primary care trusts (PCTs) across England.
Over a three-year study period, researchers found rates of infant mortality varied across 303 PCTs from 1.4 to 10.83 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Perinatal mortality varied from 3.93 to 16.66 per 1,000 births.
The team found that variations in spending on maternal services by each PCT did not explain the differences.
Instead a combination of deprivation, ethnicity and maternal age was found to explain 80.5 per cent of the differences in outcomes between PCTs.
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