Despite the growing efforts of government agencies, the improved health conditions, and diminishing gap between the rich and the poor nations, many children still die every day, based on the two UN reports.
Last Tuesday, September 16, 2014, the United Nations presented its second Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed reports that focus on trends on hunger, poverty, and mortality, especially among developing nations in South Asia and Africa. These reports were in relation to the Millennium Development Goals.
Based on the report about child mortality, participating countries had made considerable effort to reduce it especially among children who are 5 years old and below. The rate of child mortality reportedly dropped from 90 to 46 between the years of 1990 and 2013. This is per a thousand live births. The mortality rate gap, meanwhile, between most of the poorest and the richest nations is also declining.
However, within the same period of 1990 to 2013, more than 200 million children all around the world died before reaching 5 years, a number the UN considered to be very significant. In 2013 alone, more than 15,000 children died every day from preventable causes including malaria, malnutrition, and pneumonia. Many infants also died during delivery because of lack of correct and timely intervention.
Analyzing the child mortality rates among 10 of high-risk countries, the UN discovered that no more than 10% of the infants in these regions received the mandatory interventions after birth such as introducing breast-feeding to mothers. Breastfeeding is a very important activity between mother and child since breast milk contains all the needed nutrients for the baby to survive particularly during the first few years. Moreover, although many pregnant mothers had seen a health worker during their nine months, the number of those who received the required pre-natal care was also below 10%.
To further reduce these numbers, the UN suggests to fully utilize the time spent by mothers with their health care workers and that more efforts should be exerted to ensure the most vulnerable population is reached.