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Thursday, February 22nd, 2018

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

Author:     Karen McVeigh
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     Tue 20 Feb 2018 01.00 EST
 Link: Newborn survival rates in US only slightly better than in Sri Lanka
Stephan:   You would think that the fact that a child born in the U.S., in  a medical center at vast expense actually doesn't have much more of a chance of surviving their first year than a child born in a Southeast Asian farming village that is delivered by a midwife would be a matter of great public debate. But it isn't. Why is that? Because we don't have a healthcare system in the U.S., we have an illness profit system, and our social safety net is an embarrassment.

A rural midwife holds a newborn baby in El Llano, Guatemala, where rural midwives deliver six of every 10 babies.
Credit: Rodrigo Abd/AP

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. (emphaasis added)

A report by the UN children’s agency found that five newborn babies die around the world every minute – a total of about 2.6 million a year. The figure was described as “alarmingly high”, not least because 80% of the deaths were from preventable causes.

A million babies draw their last breath the same day they took their first. A further 2.6 million are stillborn worldwide, said the report, entitled Every Child Alive.

The risk of dying as a newborn, which is closely linked to a country’s income level, varies enormously by place. 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, said the […]

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