ISLAMABAD – Pakistan is in the list of countries with highest mortalityrates as at least one among every 22 babies faced chances of death,revealed a report released Tuesday by United Nations Children’s Fund.
According to the report, most of these poor countries are in Africa, wherebabies still face “alarming” risks of death that can be 50 times as high asthose in the richest countries, according to a UNICEF report releasedTuesday.
For instance, a newborn in Japan had only a one in 1,111 risk of dying, thereport said.
While the last quarter-century has seen broad improvements in olderchildren’s health, “we have not made similar progress in ending deathsamong children less than one month old,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF’sexecutive director.
“Given that the majority of these deaths are preventable, clearly we arefailing the world’s poorest babies.”
Of the 10 highest-risk countries, eight are in sub-Saharan Africa,countries where “pregnant women are much less likely to receiveassistance,” due to poverty, conflict or weak institutions, according tothe report.
Those eight countries are the Central African Republic (a one in 24 chanceof death); Somalia, Lesotho, Guinea-Bissau and South Sudan (all with a onein 26 chance); Cote d’Ivoire (one in 27) and Mali and Chad (both with a onein 28 chance).
Each year, some 2.6 million babies do not survive through their first month.
*Preventable deaths*
The report was released in conjunction with the launch of a globalcampaign, called Every Child Alive, aimed at ensuring “affordable, qualityhealth care solutions for every mother and newborn”.
More than 80% of newborn deaths can be prevented, the report says, “withaccess to well-trained midwives, along with proven solutions like cleanwater, disinfectants, breastfeeding within the first hour, skin-to-skincontact and good nutrition”.
But shortages of properly trained health workers and midwives are a majorproblem in poorer nations.
While a rich country like Norway has 18 doctors, nurses and midwives forevery 10,000 people, impoverished Somalia has only one.
Every year, one million babies die the day they are born.
“We know we can save the vast majority of these babies with affordable,quality health care solutions,” Fore said.
*Rwandan success story*
In general, babies born in richer countries fare far better, but there aredifferences within countries. Babies born to the poorest families are 40%more likely to die than those born to the least poor.
Sadly typical was the story of Mary James, an 18-year-old from rural Malawi.
When her labour started, she and her sister made the long trek to a healthcentre on foot. When her baby was delivered, he was small and terriblyweak. She says an overstretched staff did its best, but by night the childwas gone.
“I felt like my heart was breaking,” James told UNICEF staff. “I had a namefor the child but he never opened his eyes.”
Since improvements to health care can be expensive, “it is crucial toinvest the money in a smart way”, UNICEF’s global maternity and newbornprogramme chief Willibald Zeck told AFP.
That can mean something as simple as ensuring that a pregnant woman who haswalked three days to a health care facility is received with “dignity”, soshe remains long enough to receive proper postnatal care.
But the dearth of expensive equipment matters. Zeck, who worked as anobstetrician/gynecologist in Tanzania, said women were often unsure howpregnant they were, and he would have to use his hands to estimate whethera fetus was premature or seriously underweight.
Still, among countries that have made dramatic improvements is low-incomeRwanda, which more than halved its rate from 1990 to 2016, illustratingthat “political will to invest in strong health systems… is critical,”the report said.
Education matters, too. Babies born to mothers with no education facenearly twice the risk of early death as babies whose mothers have at leasta secondary education.
The United States — generally affluent, but with considerable incomeinequality and wide variations in access to health care — was only the 41stsafest country for newborns.
The countries with the lowest newborn mortality rates, after Japan, aremostly well-off countries with strong education and health care 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 in667).