India among top five countries with highest rate of preterm births, claims UN

India, Pakistan, Nigeria, China and Ethiopia together accounted for 45 per cent of all babies born early in 2020, according to a new report released by UN agencies and partners on Wednesday. Raising alarm on a "silent emergency" of preterm birth, the report showed that an estimated 13.4 million babies were born pre-term in 2020, with nearly 1 million dying from preterm complications. The report Born too soon: a decade of action on preterm birth, produced by the World Health Organization and the Unicef together with PMNCH -- the world's largest alliance for women, children, and adolescents -- highlights the long under-recognised problem of preterm birth in its scale and severity, which is impeding progress in improving children's health and survival. Overall, it found that preterm birth rates have not changed in any region in the world in the past decade, with 152 million vulnerable babies born too soon from 2010 to 2020. Progress is also needed to help prevent preterm births -- this means every woman must be able to access quality health services before and during pregnancy to identify and manage risks," said Anshu Banerjee, Director for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at WHO, in a statement.