Although newborn death rates have decreased over the last 20 years, a new study shows that the U.S. neonatal mortality rankings have plummeted by 26 percent. The U.S. is now tied for having the 41st lowest risk of newborn death, down from a ranking of 28th two decades ago, with a current neonatal death rate of 4.3 per 1,000 live births.

Neonatal deaths have decreased by a good margin - 28 percent - but work to improve newborn health care in the U.S. has not progressed at the rate of other industrialized nations, sending its rankings into the middle of the pack. No longer a healthcare leader in this arena, the U.S. ranks in the same spot as Qatar, Croatia and the United Arab Emirates.

The study shows that babies born in countries including South Korea, Cuba, Malaysia, Lithuania, Poland and Israel are now more likely to survive than those born in the United States.

According to Joy Lawn of Save the Children who was involved in the research, “It’s not that things are worse in the United States than before, it’s that the U.S. isn’t making progress like other countries.” She noted that one of the major challenges faced by the United States is complications from preterm birth since the U.S. rate of preterm birth is double that of Northern Africa and European countries. Although little can be done to prevent preterm birth, premature babies born to disadvantaged people in the U.S. may be less likely to receive the costly extra care they need.

While The U.N. releases annual reports on the deaths of children under the ages of 5 and 1, newborn death estimates are only released periodically. This prompted researchers from the non-governmental organization Save The Children, The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the World Health Organization (WHO) to focus on global newborn mortality rates.

Their findings revealed that overall, newborn deaths decreased from 4.6 million in 1990 to 3.3 million in 2009. But they also found that the deaths of infants less than 4 weeks of age account for 41 percent of all child deaths occurring before the age of five worldwide, an increase of 4 percent since 1990.

The study findings indicate that several developing nations are still reporting a disproportionate number of child deaths. The results also showed that 99 percent of all newborn deaths occur in developing countries, with half of them taking place in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and the Democratic Republic of Congo combined.

In India alone, there are more than 900,000 newborn deaths each year, accounting for almost 28 percent of the global total, according to the WHO. In addition, Africa had the slowest decline in newborn deaths, at a rate of just 1 percent per year.

Lawn said, “This study shows in stark terms that where babies are born dramatically influences their chances of survival.” She then added, “Millions of babies should not be dying when there are proven, cost-effective interventions to prevent the leading causes of newborn death.”

Lawn pointed out that closer attention must be paid to newborn mortality rates to save the lives of more children. She explained that the three leading causes of newborn death are all easily preventable with proper care. These include preterm delivery, asphyxia (lack of oxygen), and severe infections. Lawn noted, “Training more midwives and other community health workers could save the lives of many more babies.” She then acknowledged, “We know that solutions as simple as keeping newborns warm, clean and properly breastfed can keep them alive.”

The researchers concluded that newborn deaths could be reduced by as much as one-third with simple preventive measures. With hospitals taking such measures as to provide antibiotics and implement resuscitation techniques, the number of deaths could be reduced by two-thirds. The study was recently published in the jounal PloS Medicine.

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by Ren Trippel
HealthNews, Inc