The United Nations says thanks improved access to affordable, quality health services, the number of pregnant women or new mothers and young children who die each year has reduced.
In a statement on Thursday, Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the World Health Organization said “In countries that provide everyone with safe, affordable, high-quality health services, women and babies survive and thrive.”
Since the turn of the century, the number of deaths among children under the age of five has been cut almost in half to some 5.3 million worldwide last year.
Almost half of those deaths occurred during the first month of life, meaning that around 7,000 newborns still died every single day last year.
At the same time, the number of women dying due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth dropped by more than a third to around 295,000 in 2017, compared to 451,000 in 2000.
While this marks a huge improvement, some 800 women still died each day from complications in pregnancy and childbirth in 2017, the UN numbers showed.
In all, the statistics reveal that an estimated 2.8 million women and newborns die every year, mostly from preventable causes.
Read more at:https://www.tv360nigeria.com/global-child-maternal-death-reduces-un/