How Bangladesh Drastically Cut its Newborn Death Rate
In a new report released by UNICEF this past week, the organization exposed the strikingly high newborn death rates worldwide; however, one country demonstrated remarkable progress over the past 28 years- and that country is Bangladesh. From 1990 till today, Bangladesh managed to slash its newborn death rate by two-thirds, from 64.2 per 1000 live births to 20.1 per 1000. To compare, Bangladesh has managed to lower its newborn death rate to 1 for every 50 births, while neighboring country Pakistan has a newborn death rate of 1 for every 22 births.
Therefore, the question arises as to how Bangladesh managed to forge such significant progress on a global health issue that most developing countries have a difficult time tackling. Most of this improvement is attributed to more women going to health clinics to give birth as supposed to giving birth at home. In 1990, approximately 90% of births were taking place at home, where relatives that had no training were assisting the labor process. There has also been a large cultural stigma behind going to a health care clinic, for there were beliefs that a woman should not expose herself to a male doctor.
Due to the large amount of pregnancies taking place at home, a common cause of newborn deaths was asphyxia- a lack of oxygen being delivered to the baby due to obstructed labor (i.e. when the umbilical cord is choking the baby). Therefore, to improve this situation, the Bangladeshi government started to work with donor governments and international organizations to train workers at health centers on infection control and resuscitation and top open more clinics for childbirth. This effort was amplified by the strong number of grassroots organizations and NGOs that were partaking in the effort.
Bangladesh aims to lower this newborn death rate even more in the future, and still has many dire infant- related issues to resolve. One of the most pressing today us premature death, which has risen to become the leading cause of newborn death in Bangladesh- being responsible 1 in every 3 newborn deaths. Also, the issue of mothers giving birth in their teenage years and newborns dying due to respiratory distress persists In response to these issues, the Bagladeshi government is promoting campaigns against child marriage and opening up more ICUs for infants.
Link to Article: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/02/25/587692950/how-one-country-drastically-cut-its-newborn-death-rate