Goal #4 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) calls on each country to reduce child mortality by two/thirds from 1990 levels by 2015. A recent study published in the British medial journal Lancet estimated that 7.7 million children under age 5 will lose their lives in 2010, most from preventable diseases.
 
It is clear that the lives of children around the world are often not sufficiently valued and their basic needs for health care, clean water, education, nutrition, and an environment free from violence remain unmet.
 
Over 200 million children under age 5 do not have access to lifesaving health care to prevent and treat diseases including malaria, infection, diarrhea and pneumonia.
 
Nearly 1 million newborns will die in the first minute after birth simply because they cannot take their first breath. This “golden minute” is the most dangerous time in any person’s life. Birth asphyxia kills more children than malaria and nearly five times more than HIV/AIDS. Stillborn deaths also account for the heartbreaking loss of 26,000 lives a year in the USA; everyday 70 American women deliver a child who died in the womb.
While global efforts to reduce child mortality are underway, pro-abortion activists seek to legalize abortion—the destruction of infants. The current global loss of children’s lives from the violence of abortion is staggering and exceeds all other causes of child mortality. Abortion is child mortality.

PNCI supports policies to provide simple resuscitators in low resource areas to save the lives of newborns and advocates for life-saving measures to unborn children’s lives including prenatal care and skilled assistance during birth. PNCI believes that the laws and public health policies of governments need to be responsive to and inclusive of unborn children as the “youngest patients” who deserve medical intervention and treatment while yet in the womb.

PNCI promotes access to health care for children and their mothers including antibiotics, immunizations for communicable disease, prevention and treatment of malaria, treatment of pneumonia and oral rehydration for diarrheal disease and recognizes the need for clean water, sanitation and economic opportunities and educational training for mothers so they can meet the basic needs of their children and help them survive childhood.

Links:

Count the Kicks
Awareness campaign dedicated to educating expectant parents about the importance of counting their babies movements daily during the third trimester
http://www.countthekicks.me/
 
Helping Babies Breathe
Provides information for resource-limited circumstances to help reduce the death of newborns from birth asphyxia
http://www.helpingbabiesbreathe.org/
 
 
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
Details new study on child mortality showing improvement in reducing child mortality http://www.healthmetricsandevaluation.org/resources/news/2010/unexpected_decline_0510.html