Newborn survival rates in US only slightly better than in Sri Lanka

Please contribute to The Guardian, so they can continue to operate w/o a pay wall.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/feb/20/newborn-babies-survival-rates-us-united-states-slightly-better-sri-lanka

Karen McVeigh
Tue 20 Feb 2018 01.00 EST
Last modified on Tue 20 Feb 2018 10.16 EST

The risk of dying as a newborn in the US is only slightly lower than the risk for babies in Sri Lanka and Ukraine, according to Unicef.

A report by the UN children’s agency found that five newborn babies die around the world every minute, or about 2.6 million every year. The figure is described as “alarmingly high”, particularly as 80% of these deaths are from preventable causes.

•••••

The risk of dying as a newborn, which is closely linked to income level of countries, varies enormously. Babies born in Japan, Singapore and Iceland stand the best chance of survival, while those in Pakistan, Central African Republic and Afghanistan face the worst odds, according to the report, which looks at the 10 most dangerous places to be born.

A baby born in Pakistan is almost 50 times more likely to die within its first month of life than a baby born in Japan, it found.

But a country’s income explains only part of the story. In Kuwait and the United States, both high-income countries, the newborn mortality rate is 4.4 and 3.7 per 1,000 live births, only slightly better than Sri Lanka and Ukraine, where the rate is 5.3 and 5.4.

•••••

Across the world, babies born into the poorest families are 40% more likely to die in the first month than those born into the richest.

•••••

The report notes that eight of the 10 most dangerous places to be born are in sub-Saharan Africa, where pregnant women are much less likely to receive assistance during delivery due to poverty, conflict and weak institutions.

Rwanda, a low-income country, has halved its newborn mortality rate in the last two decades, due to strong health systems, from 41 in 1990 to 17 in 2016.

Babies born to mothers who have had no education face almost twice the risk of dying than those born to mothers with secondary education, it said.
'I don't live any more': Zika takes a heavy toll on families in Brazil
Read more

More than 80% of newborn deaths are due to prematurity, complications during birth, or infections such as pneumonia and sepsis. Such deaths can be prevented with access to trained midwives, clean water, disinfectants, breastfeeding within the first hour, skin-to-skin contact and good nutrition.

However, the report points out, while there are 218 doctors, nurses and midwives in Norway per 10,000 people, that ratio falls to one per 10,000 in Somalia.

•••••