Addressing Newborn Mortality in Odisha Performance Assessment of Special Newborn Care Units

Abstract

Across the world, about 5.6 million children could not survive beyond five years of age in newline2016. From among this cohort more than 2.6 million newborns died within four weeks of newlinebeing born. Each day, 15000 under-five children die from conditions which can be newlineprevented or treated. Neonatal deaths accounted for about 46 percent of all under-five newlinedeaths, which have increased from 41 percent in 2000 (UNICEF, 2017). The decline in newlinethe deaths among babies dying before one month of age is slower than the children newlineamong the age group of 1 59 months. The rates of mortality among the babies less than 4 newlineweeks of age is an important indicator of the status of maternal, newborn and perinatal newlinehealth in a population or country. As per the Sustainable Development Goals, the world newlineneeds to achieve an under-five death rate of 25 per 1000 live births and a newborn newlinemortality rate of at least 12 per 1000 live births (UN Sustainable Development Summit, newline2015). More than 50% of the neonatal deaths took place in only five nations. The newlinecountries where most of the newborn deaths are taking place are Nigeria, Ethiopia, newlineDemocratic Republic of Congo, India and Pakistan. India accounted for nearly a quarter newlineof the neonatal deaths, while Pakistan had 10 percent share of deaths, Nigeria had nine newlinepercent, Democratic Republic of the Congo contributed four per cent and Ethiopia had a newlineshare of three per cent of neonatal deaths (UNICEF, 2018). There are significant newlinedifferences in the rates of child mortality across countries and within the countries. The newlinemortalities range from, one out of thirteen under-five children in sub-Saharan Africa to newlineone in 189 under-five children in the developed nations. Among the newborns, the deaths newlineare as high as one in thirty-six babies while the ratio is one in 333 in the rich countries newline(Estimates of Mortality Indicators, Census India, 2018). It is estimated that 963,000, newlineUnder-five deaths take place annually in India of which 592,500 are neonates, i.e. 61.5% newline(Registrar General of India, 2016). There is a wide variation