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Maternal and neo-natal health – the sad truth about lives cut short
UNICEF has published its annual report on maternal and neonatal health. This 2009 edition focuses on The State of the World’s Children.
This may seem dramatic but last year 4 million children died within 28 days of birth. And in the case of maternal mortality, there were 400 deaths for every 100,000 births. Almost as many as in previous years …
Supervising women during pregnancy, improving the conditions in which women give birth and medical monitoring of infants are among the practical measures the UNICEF report focuses on implementing in order to reduce the virtual massacre that takes place among the world’s poorest people … in Africa and Asia in particular.
The situation is unacceptable, states Marie-Claire Mutanda, head of maternal and neonatal health for UNICEF-Niger. Women are a force for development for a country. We must give them access to education and decision-making.
In fact, lack of education plays a major role in this very high mortality level. The weight of tradition too. It is imperative to create a favourable social environment, UNICEF stresses. This requires the prevention of early marriages, stopping excisions and, combating violence and abusive treatment. Measures which unfortunately have been familiar for a very long time but which are still proving difficult to put into effective practice in the field …
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34 article(s)
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