World Mothers Report: High Newborn Death Rate Needs to be Lowered

Over 1 million babies die on their first day of life each year, and the Save the Children Foundation focused their 14th annual World Mothers Report on the phenomenon in an effort to call attention to and promote preventative measures of newborn deaths. Finding out how to help newborns survive their first days may lower child mortality rates.

According to Time, the report rates the well-being of moms and children in 165 countries based on factors from education to the prevalance of breast-feeding. This year's report focused on newborn health, ranking countries based on mother's and children's health, educational, economic and political status.

While you may think the U.S. would rank as one of the top countries to be a mother, as it is a wealthy country with a relatively high quality of life and great health technology, the U.S. ranks as the 30th best country to be a mom, "dropping five spots from last year's 25th-place ranking." Shockingly, the U.S. accounts for 60 percent of all first-death newborn deaths among the industrial world, according to the report.

Finland ranked first this year, followed by Sweden and Norway, all having high scores in overall health of mothers and their children. Although child mortality has decreased from 12 million deaths annually to 7 million since 1990, newborn mortality rates have not decreased significantly, as 43 percent of child deaths occur during a baby's first month, and more than a third on their first day of life.

The report found that 98 percent of newborn first-day deaths occur in developing countries due to birth complications and infection, two of the leading causes of newborn death along with prematurity.

As for preventative solutions, the report cites four recommended interventions that might make a big difference in these alarming death rates: using chlorhexidine to cleanse umbilical cords, steroid injections for women undergoing preterm labor, "resuscitation devices to save babies who are born not breathing and injectable antibiotics to treat newborn sepsis and pneumonia."

Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children, summed up the findings of the report: "'[To make these changes] it takes political will and it takes focus and continued support from donor governments like the U.S. and the U.K. and Germany, [as well as] countries where kids are dying to say, 'This doesn't have to happen here.'"