Why is Save the Children focusing on saving newborn lives?
Each year, at least four million babies die during the first month of life, representing 40 percent of all deaths to children under five. While death rates among all children under 5 have declined in recent decades, newborn death rates have changed very little. We don’t need to discover a cure or pay for high-tech equipment to reduce these newborn deaths. In fact, in March 2005, the leading international medical journal The Lancet released a landmark series of research papers on newborn survival that underscores this point. The Lancet research shows that we could save three million of these young lives by introducing proven, low-cost measures for newborns into communities and households. Measures such as tetanus-toxoid vaccinations and counseling in nutrition, breastfeeding, and danger signs help mothers improve their chances of delivering and raising healthy babies. Measures such as educating mothers and family members about the importance of postnatal check-ups, wrapping a baby for w
