Baby Gold

More than one-quarter of the world’s neonatal deaths happen in India.

In 2018, an estimated 882,000 children under five died in India, the highest in the world. Many of the deaths occur before children turn one. As many as 33 of 1,000 children died within one year of birth in 2017, according to data from the government’s Sample Registration System (2019).

The neonatal period, the first 28 days of life, carries the highest risk of mortality per day than any other period during childhood. The first 24 hours account for more than one-third (36.9%) of the deaths that occur in the entire neonatal period.

A report from UNICEF (2019) noted that since almost half of all under-five deaths are among newborns, many can be prevented by reaching higher coverage of good quality antenatal care, skilled care at birth, postnatal care for the mother and the baby, and care of small and sick newborns. Newborns have better chances of survival if breastfed within the first hour of birth, as the report says: “When breastfeeding is delayed after birth, the consequences can be life-threatening and the longer newborns are left waiting, the greater the risk.”