More women and newborns survive than ever before

Developments in healthcare mean more women and babies are surviving than ever before, a new study has found.

The report, published by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), found maternal deaths have decreased by more than a third since 2000. Deaths of children were found to have fallen by almost half in the same time period.

There was a 56% decrease in deaths of children younger than 15 since 1990 – from 14.2 million deaths to 6.2 million in 2018. 

But the research still found a pregnant woman or a newborn baby dies every 11 seconds from causes that are predominantly preventable and avoidable – with 2.8 million estimated to die every year.

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Source: The Independent, 19 September 2019