Resource Pages

May 13, 2013

Saving a million people per year on the most dangerous day of their life for less than $10 each

More than one million babies die on their birth day every year and four inexpensive products can help to save most of them. A baby's first day the riskiest day of his or her life — in the USA and other countries, according to the 14th annual State of the World's Mothers report (88 pages). Every year nearly 3 million babies die in the first month and mostly from preventable causes.

Four products costing between 13 cents and $6 each can save newborns — many on the first day of life.

The products are:
• steroid injections for women in preterm labor (to reduce deaths due to premature babies' breathing problems);

• resuscitation devices (to save babies who do not breathe at birth);

• chlorhexidine cord cleansing (to prevent umbilical cord infections); and

• injectable antibiotics (to treat newborn sepsis and pneumonia).


Read more at NBF