India Needs To Care More For Its Newborn Babies, According To Unicef Report

When it comes to safeguarding the lives of its newborn babies, India still has a long way to go, according to a new Unicef report on neonatal mortality (deaths of newborn babies within the first 28 days).

The report ranks countries in terms of newborn mortality rates according to income group, besides the overall riskiest and safest countries for newborns.

While India had the largest number of newborn deaths in 2016 in terms of absolute numbers — 6,40,000 newborn babies died — the country has a neonatal mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births) of 25.4.

This places India on 12th position in terms of risk for newborns among the 52 ‘Lower Middle Income’ countries. In the same income group, Sri Lanka is the safest for newborn babies with a neonatal mortality rate of 5.3. Even Bangladesh has a better rate than India at 20.1. Pakistan has the highest neonatal mortality rate at 45.6 — both among the lower middle income countries as well as worldwide, making it the riskiest country for newborn children.

On the other hand, Japan is the safest country in the world for a baby to be born — with a neonatal mortality rate of 0.9, which means less than 1 baby dies among every 1,000 babies that are born. Japan is followed by Iceland and Singapore as the three safest countries for babies, with a rate of 1.0 and 1.1 newborn mortality, respectively.

Every year, 2.6 million babies die all over the world within their first month. This means an average 7,000 babies die every day in the world.

The report notes that the survival of newborn babies is “closely linked to a country’s income level”, with High Income countries having an average newborn mortality rate of only 3, compared to the newborn mortality rate of 27 in Low Income countries.

Importantly, however, the Unicef report recognises that income level is not the only factor responsible for the well-being  of newborn babies — a matter of access to maternal and newborn health services — but that “political will” is equally important.

“A country’s income level explains only part of the story,” the report says.

“While high levels of income mean that financial resources exist to invest in strong health systems, there is also a need for strong political will to direct those investments. Such political will is not always present.”

For example, both Sri Lanka and Ukraine are Lower Middle Income countries having a newborn mortality rate is 5 — close to the rates in Kuwait and the USA, which are both High Income countries with a newborn mortality rate of 4.

Similarly, Trinidad and Tobago is a High Income country with a newborn mortality rate of 12.6, which is “comparable to mortality rates in some lower-middle- and low-income countries.”

The report also cites the example of Rwanda, a Low Income country, which “has more than halved its newborn mortality rate in recent decades, reducing it from 41 in 1990 to 17 in 2016, which puts the country well ahead of upper-middle-income countries like the Dominican Republic, where the newborn mortality rate is 21.”

As the report says, “when resources are scarce, strong political commitment can ensure that the limited resources that do exist are invested judiciously to build strong health systems that prioritize newborns and reach the poorest and most marginalized.”