About 7,000 newborns die every day in the world - The Province

Nearly 7,000 newborns die every day around the world, many of them without having come to have a name because parents think it will be easier to forget their death in this way if they do not survive during their first month of life, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

"The first month of life is the most crucial for child survival, but every year 2.5 million babies die before it is completed," the United Nations agency, which has emphasized the need to adopt "urgent measures" for prevent about 28 million newborns from dying "by 2030", "most of them because of premature births, complications during childbirth or infections such as sepsis, pneumonia or meningitis."

UNICEF has underlined that 80% of these newborns at risk - 5,600 babies every day - can be saved thanks to "simple and low-cost solutions" such as "a vaccine, a mosquito net, a thermal blanket or an antibiotic"

.@luciapediatra explains the complicated state of health of many babies in a center that we support in Maradí, Niger #RetoUnNombreUnaVida https://t.co/eQ7isjCeOu pic.twitter.com/2SD5VJmL6E

- UNICEF ComitéEspañol (@unicef_es) October 23, 2018

For this reason, UNICEF Spanish Committee has launched the initiative #UnNombreUnaVida, a campaign for the survival of newborns that aims that all babies have a name and a life to live and enjoy.

"To get it you need more resources that allow implementing the necessary measures. For example, with only 1 euro you can vaccinate two children against polio, a disease that can be deadly among children; with 2 euros, four mothers can be vaccinated against tetanus and thus avoid transmission to the baby (infected newborns have a probability of dying of 80%); and with 5 euros can be supplied 25 bars of soap, which guarantee a minimum hygiene during childbirth ", explained the United Nations agency.

The executive director of UNICEF Spanish Committee, Javier Martos, recalled that, "throughout this year," the UN agency "has been asking world leaders that mothers and their newborns receive affordable and quality medical care wherever they are. " "Now we go one step further and we encourage all of society to join us and help us get all the babies, born where they are born, have a name and a life ahead of them. We know they will turn to this cause, "he said.

UNICEF has explained that the place of birth "continues to determine the chances of survival." Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have the highest neonatal mortality rates in the world, with 27 and 26 deaths per 1,000 live births, respectively, and babies born there have nine times more likely to die than those born in high income countries.

This average amounts to up to 50 more possibilities of dying if the country is compared with the highest neonatal mortality rate, Pakistan (where one out of every 23 babies born alive dies), with Japan, where one of every 1,100 dies. In Spain, the neonatal mortality rate is 2 children per 1,000 live births.

Challenge in the poorest country in the world

In the framework of the campaign #RetoUnNUnaVida, UNICEF has sent the pediatrician and writer Lucia Galán Bertrand and the nutritionist and doctor in Pharmacy Marián García to Niger, the poorest country in the world and with 11.7 million children facing a complicated life with problems like malnutrition.

From Niger, Lucía Galán and Marían García will promote the campaign #RetoUnNombreUnaVida, to encourage their followers, and anyone who wants to join, to Buy 7,000 'One Name One Life' kits of supplies Blue Gift Card. The kit contains one dose of the TB vaccine for the baby, five doses of tetanus vaccine (three for the baby and two for the mother), a mosquito net to protect the baby against malaria, and soap and gloves so that the delivery takes place under minimal hygienic conditions.

Today we have launched the #RetoUnNombreUnaVida! Beside @luciapediatra Y @boticariagarcia We want to get 7,000 kits to save the lives of 7,000 babies who die every day before they reach 1 month. We need your help https://t.co/eQ7isjCeOu pic.twitter.com/RVbPoYoVzT

- UNICEF ComitéEspañol (@unicef_es) October 23, 2018

With each of these kits, babies and their mothers are protected and their survival is contributed during their first 28 days of life.

Within the framework of the campaign's dissemination efforts, UNICEF has launched the centric Fuencarral street in Madrid. exhibition '12 stories of survival ', with photographs of newborns from countries where the neonatal mortality rate is highest, and who have survived thanks to having drinking water, a trained midwife, vaccines or medical assistance. "Very simple measures that, although they are often taken for granted, are not available in many parts of the world," concluded the UN agency.