Full Coverage: Infant mortality

02.11.2009 Today is the first global day marking the fight against "the world's leading killer of young children."

28.10.2009 Ending the needless death and suffering of women during pregnancy is one of the greatest moral, human rights and development challenges of our time, an international conference in Addis Ababa agreed.

16.09.2009 Pneumonia and diarrhoea were the leading causes of the deaths of nearly 9 million children before their 5th birthday during 2008, according to UNICEF's latest report. Progress in reducing child mortality has been good but not good enough to achieve the millennium development goal. UNICEF

02.08.2009 Checklist of the main medical causes of death in childbirth in the developing world. Global Health

04.03.2009 A film by five midwives and a doctor in Tanzania documenting the appalling conditions in which women have to give birth had remarkable effects: the government doubled the number of midwives trained each year and placed more midwives in rural areas. Brigid McConville tells the story.

06.05.2008 Traditional midwives or dais have been overlooked by India’s National Rural Health Mission that focuses solely on institutional delivery. In a country having the highest maternal mortality rate and collapsing rural health care, there is a need to integrate these women in public health programmes.

18.04.2008 Female community health workers are saving young lives in the country by providing key services and interventions to pregnant women and children. While Nepal’s success in reducing child mortality puts it on track to achieve Millennium Development Goal 4, neonatal mortality remains a challenge with over 50% less than one month old babies dying.

14.03.2008 Punjab province in Pakistan has very high mortality rates for newborns, as a very small percentage of births take place under the supervision of trained attendants. UNICEF is now training midwives to prevent such deaths.

12.03.2008 New software by India’s National Informatics Centre (NIC) in Jharkhand offers individual search for pregnant women and newborns at the Anganwadi level. The programme will help the state government track the nutrition status of both mother and child and the immunisation of infants.

29.02.2008 Two studies by the Urban Health Resource Centre talk of maternal and newborn care among the poor in central India and state of urban health in the national capital. Apart from highlighting the need for better access to healthcare facilities, the reports underline the cultural factors and prevalence of poverty as obstacles.

27.02.2008 SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 26 (OneWorld) - Most of California's furniture contains toxic chemicals that have been linked to cancer, birth defects, hormone disruption, and neurological and reproductive dysfunction, according to a report released today.

22.02.2008 With nearly 10 million children dying every year around the world, how does it matter even if GDP growth shoots up? Research reveals that the issue is not about inadequacy of resources among developing countries, but lack of effective policies that can translate economic growth into development outcomes for the poor.

19.02.2008 Child mortality cannot be divorced from broader political and socio-economic development, says a report by Save the Children, a UK-based organisation. The report argues that policy choices and efficient resource allocation are crucial to tackle the issue of child survival in developing countries.

19.02.2008 According to a new Wealth and Survival Index, India is one of the worst performers in cutting child mortality, given its national wealth. The new report by Save the Children UK says even the poorest of countries can attain child survival if they pursue the right policies.

06.02.2008

28.01.2008 India is home to 61 million stunted children – more than half the total number of kids under the age of five and 34% of the world’s young ones. The diminutive growth is attributed to malnutrition during pregnancy and first two years of birth, says The Lancet report, underlining the importance of ‘golden interval of intervention’.

23.01.2008 UNITED NATIONS, Jan 22 (OneWorld) - Tens of thousands of children die each day, many because they have no access to simple medical treatments, say the authors of a new study released here Tuesday.

14.12.2007 A recent UNICEF report signals progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.

30.11.2007

15.11.2007 A new resource, the MDG Monitor, created by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with several other UN bodies with assistance from Google and Cisco, is an excellent tool for policymakers, journalists, students and others to learn about the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).