The effect of the quality of prenatal care on child mortality outcomes has received less
attention in sub-Saharan Africa. This study sought to explore the consequence of the quality of
prenatal care and its individual components on neonatal, infant and under-five mortality using
the three most recent rounds of the nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey
data for Zimbabwe conducted in 1999, 2005/06 and 2010/11. The model for the demand for the
quality of prenatal care is estimated using an OLS regression while the child mortality models
are estimated using standard probit regressions. Since infant mortality rates and access to quality
prenatal care might differ by rural and urban residence, we estimate separate models for the
overall sample, urban and rural samples. The results indicate that a one-unit increase in the
quality of prenatal care lowers the risks of neonatal, infant and under-five mortality by nearly
36%, 29.31%, and 27.53% respectively for the overall sample. The probability of neonatal,
infant and under-five mortality is lowered by about 41.67%, 35.18%, and 30.77% respectively
for urban-born children following a one-unit increase in the quality of prenatal care. For the rural
sample, we found that a one-unit increase in the quality of prenatal care lowers the risks of
neonatal, infant and under-five mortality by nearly 34.61%, 27.12%, and 25.35% respectively.
These findings are all statistically significant at the 1% significance level. Examining the effect
of individual prenatal care components on child mortality revealed that blood pressure checks,
information on pregnancy complications, iron supplementations, and tetanus vaccinations are all
important in lowering child deaths. Overall, our results suggest the need for public health policy
makers in Zimbabwe to focus on ensuring high-quality prenatal care especially in low-income
and rural segments of the population to save Zimbabwe’s children.