8 new-borns dying every minute due to poor health care



24th September, 2001.

Eight babies under one month old die every minute worldwide because they do not receive adequate health care, a Save The Children report showed.

The international child-assistance organisation called on governments the world over to improve access to vaccinations, provide rudimentary hygiene equipment and promote breast-feeding.

"While child death rates have been reduced 14 per cent over the past decade, new-born death rates remain staggeringly high,’’ Charles MacCormack, Save The Children’s president, said.

The study of new-born babies in 163 countries, comes one week before the United Nations holds its Special Session on Children in New York.

Since the last UN children’s meeting in ‘90, incidence of deaths among children under 5 have been slashed by a third. Save The Children hopes this year’s summit will focus on the 4m new-born babies who die each year.

Despite progress, disparities in infant mortality rates remain huge. In the West African country of Mali, 60 new-born babies out of every 1,000 die, compared with only five in 1,000 in the United States, the world’s richest economy.

"Saving new-born Lives’ is the group’s latest project. Running in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Malawi, Mali and Bolivia, the organisation aims to help improve care for mothers before, during and after the birth. Around 53m women give birth each year without professional help.

Save The Children wants to make assistance with delivery a fundamental birthing right. All mothers should have access to a simple delivery kit that would help limit infection at a birth, it said.

The kit, costing just 35 US cents, would include a plastic sheet, a bar of soap, string to tie the umbilical cord and a razor to cut it.

The group also said tetanus injections should be available to every pregnant woman to stop her baby from contracting the deadly disease. The report said this measure would cost little over a dollar.

It encouraged women to breast feed and supply much-needed nutrients to their babies. Glands in a woman’s breasts initially produce a watery fluid called colostrum, which contains proteins and antibodies that protect new-born babies against infection.

But currently 80 per cent of all new-borns in Asia do not suckle within their first 24 hours.

"In South Asia there’s a cultural belief that the first milk is stale and dirty so they feed the baby honeyed tea for a few days. It’s a terrible waste of nature’s gift, "Anne Tinker, director of Saving New-born Lives, said. (Reuters)

http://www.savethechildren.org/mothers/newborns/contents.shtml