One million babies die the day they are born

New York: The world is failing newborn babies, particularly those in developing nations, according to a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). The report states that seven thousand newborns die every day, with the highest mortality rates occurring in Pakistan, Afghanistan and sub-Saharan African countries. Every year, one million babies die the day they are born.

Babies born in Japan, Iceland and Singapore have the greatest chance of survival, according to the data from the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

Despite more than halving the number of deaths among children under the age of five in the last 25 years, there has not been similar global progress for children less than one month old, Unicef’s Executive Director Henrietta H Fore said.

“Given that many of these deaths are preventable, clearly we are failing the world’s poorest babies,” she said.

The report states that newborns are not dying from medical causes, but because their families are too poor or marginalised to access care.

In response, Unicef has established the Every Child ALIVE campaign, which calls on governments, the private sector and individuals to increase access to newborn care.

“Every year, 2.6 million newborns around the world do not survive their first month of life,” Fore said. That means five newborn babies every minute.

“Just a few small steps from all of us can help ensure the first small steps of each of these young lives.”

Five of the 10 most dangerous countries to be born are in West and Central Africa, with infants there 50 times more likely to die within a month.

“Neonatal health hasn’t really been addressed by governments or institutions,” Unicef’s regional health specialist, Alain Prual, said.

For years, aid agencies have focused on reducing deaths of children under five, which have dropped sharply, said Laurent Hiffler of medical

charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

Yet, babies are still dying at high rates in the first month after they are born, he said.

Only one in two women in the region gives birth in a health facility, often because clinics are few and far between and they cannot afford to travel, according to Unicef.

While the number of deaths among children under the age of five globally has more than halved in the last 25 years, progress in ending deaths of children less than one month old has been much slower, said Henrietta Fore, the new Unicef chief.

More than 80 per cent of newborn deaths can be prevented, the report says, “with access to well-trained midwives, along with proven solutions like clean water, disinfectants, breastfeeding within the first hour, skin-to-skin contact and good nutrition.”

But shortages of properly trained health workers and midwives are a major problem in poorer nations.

While a rich country like Norway has 18 doctors, nurses and midwives for every 10,000 people, impoverished Somalia has only one.

In general, babies born in richer countries fare far better, but there are differences within countries.

Babies born to the poorest families are 40 per cent more likely to die than those born to the least poor.

Still, among countries that have made dramatic improvements is low-income Rwanda, which more than halved its rate from 1990 to 2016, illustrating that “political will to invest in strong health systems... is critical,” the report said. Education matters, too.

Babies born to mothers with no education face nearly twice the risk of early death as babies whose mothers have at least a secondary education.

The United States — generally affluent, but with considerable income inequality and wide variations in access to healthcare — was only the 41st safest country for newborns.

The countries with the lowest newborn mortality rates, after Japan, are mostly well-off countries with strong education and healthcare systems: Iceland (a one in 1,000 chance of death), Singapore (one in 909), Finland (one in 833), Estonia and Slovenia (both one in 769), Cyprus (one in 714) and Belarus, Luxembourg, Norway and South Korea (all with risks of one in 667).

— Agencies