India accounts for 29 percent of deaths of newborns globally: Save the Children

Save the Children, UK-based NGO released a Report titled Ending Newborn Deaths on 25 February 2014. India alone accounts for a 29 percent of the global deaths of newborns on their very first day of birth. The report claimed that about one million babies die every year across the world on their first and only day of life. The report also highlighted that if we end preventable newborn mortality than about two million newborn babies could be saved.

Highlights of Report

• The report said India made considerable progress in the arena of healthcare during the past decade but glaring inequalities still rule the roost. Theses inequalities stem from geographical, social, cultural, and economic factors.
• Though Under-five mortality, India has reduced more than half since 1990 from 126 per 1000 live births to 56, but it is three times higher among the poorest households of India vis-a-vis the richest.  Also the new born mortality over the same period has come down from 51 per 1000 live births to 31 but it is much higher among the poor.
• The world has made amazing progress in reducing child mortality during the past decade, nearly halved from 12 million to 6.6 million.
• 2.9 million Babies died across the world within 28 days of being born in 2012. The number of deaths in this newborn period is four times higher in Africa than it is in Europe.
• 6.6 million Children died before their fifth birthday in 2012, most from preventable causes. This number has almost been halved since 1990, but still means that 18000 children died every day.
• 51 percentages of births in sub-Saharan Africa were not attended by a midwife or other properly qualified health worker and 41 percentages in south-east Asia.
• Meanwhile, Pakistan ranked among the countries with the highest stillbirth rates at 40.7 per 1000 births, followed by Nigeria (32.7), Sierra Leone (30.8) and Somalia (29.7).