Over a million babies a year die on first day of life

"More than a million babies around the world die on the day of their birth yearly," is the sobering news in The Guardian after a report by the charity Save the Children argued that further action is required to combat child mortality.  The report shows that 2.9 million babies died within 28 days of being born in 2012, with one million of these babies dying within 24 hours. The causes of these deaths include premature birth, complications during birth such as abnormal presentation (for example, when a baby presents feet or buttocks first rather than head first), and infections such as meningitis. In addition, in the same year there were 1.2 million stillbirths during labour. The report focuses on the combined total of the 2.2 million newborn deaths on the first day of life and stillbirths during labour. Arguably, most of these 2.2 million deaths were preventable. The report found that there is huge regional variation in newborn deaths. Generally, the poorest countries have the highest mortality rates for newborns. There are dramatic inequalities in death rates for newborn babies within poor countries, with the poorest communities and other marginalised groups generally experiencing considerably higher rates of newborn mortality. The report has identified essential services that should be provided to prevent newborn deaths, and calls upon world leaders, philanthropists and the private sector to implement a Newborn Promise to end all preventable newborn deaths. ...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: QA articles Pregnancy/child Source Type: news