Singapore is Asia’s safest place to be born and to be mother

1 million babies die the day they’re born, Save the Children reports

A baby’s birth day is the most dangerous day of life with more than one million babies dead in the world, according to Save the Children’s report released on May 7.

In Asia, Singapore has the lowest first-day infant mortality rate, making it the safest place in the region to be born while the most dangerous place turns out to be Pakistan which has the highest first-day mortality rate.

The children’s aid agency released its 14th annual report titled ‘Surviving the First Day: State of the World’s Mothers 2013’ with the first-ever Birth Day Risk Index.

The index revealed that Singapore shares top spot with Sweden, Estonia, Cyprus, Iceland and Luxembourg, at less than 0.5 deaths in the first day per 1,000 live births. Globally, 6.9 million children die each year before their fifth birthday with a million of those within the first day, making it the most dangerous day in any person’s life.

The report compares 176 countries around the globe, showing which are succeeding and which are failing in saving and improving the lives of mothers and their children.

Singapore is ranked 15th on the best places to be a mother, based on factors such as mother’s health, education and economic status, as well as critical child indicators such as health and nutrition. It came in ahead of Asian countries including Japan, Korea (tied for 31st) and Malaysia (70th).

Pakistan has the highest first-day infant mortality rate in Asia, one in 77 babies, which accounts for 17 percent of all under-five deaths in the country.

The Mothers’ Index ranks Finland as the best place in the world to be a mother, and Democratic Republic of the Congo as the toughest. The United States ranks 30th best. The U.S. is a riskier place to be born than 68 other countries, according to analysis by Save the Children and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

The U.S. has more first-day deaths than the rest of the industrialized world combined, largely due to higher U.S. prematurity rates. Approximately 11,300 U.S. babies died on their birth day in 2011, the report says. Some U.S. counties have first-day death rates common in the developing world, where 98 percent of all first-day deaths occur.

“It’s hard to imagine the depth of one mother’s pain in losing her baby the very day she gives birth, let alone a million times over,” said Carolyn Miles, President & CEO of Save the Children. “Yet, this report is full of hope. It shows there’s a growing movement to save newborn lives and growing evidence we can do it, saving up to 75 percent of them with no intensive care whatsoever.”

Since 1990, child mortality has dropped from 12 million annual deaths to under 7 million. But the report shows newborns have benefited the least. In sub-Saharan Africa, as many newborns die now as two decades ago.

Globally, a rising share of child deaths, 43 percent, now occur in the newborn period, or first month of life.

The leading causes are prematurity, birth complications and severe infections. In the U.S. and developing countries alike, the poorest mothers are more likely to lose a newborn baby, the report finds.

The countries with the most first-day deaths annually are India (more than 300,000) and Nigeria (almost 90,000). In Somalia, which has the highest first-day death rate, babies are about 40 times more likely to die than in Singapore and Sweden, which have among the lowest.

The report finds that four products costing between 13 cents and $6 could save 1 million newborns a year, many on their first day. They are: resuscitation devices, the antiseptic chlorhexidine to prevent cord infections, injectable antibiotics and antenatal steroid injections to help preterm babies’ lungs develop.

Other factors the report says will save more newborns include: breastfeeding, “kangaroo mother care,” skilled attendance at birth, addressing the health worker crisis and investing in female empowerment.