That over three lakh newborns in India die within 24 hours of their birth everyday (May 8) is shocking. How can such a big disaster be allowed to occur in a country that boasts of huge achievements in science and technology? India has the seventh largest defence budget in the world. What are our priorities? Human lives or nuclear weapons? The media should bring this issue to the mainstream. Let us take pride in defending life.
Fr Paul Percy D’silva,
Kozhikode
The report says Kerala is far ahead of the rest of India in saving babies. Pregnant women in the State seek medical care quite early. Problems like diabetes, hypertension, etc., are detected in the initial stages and controlled. Thanks to good antenatal care, complications like foetal growth restriction are also detected early and labour is induced before serious foetal or maternal complications occur.
The other aspect of the low neo-natal death rate is not that rosy. Thanks to the availability of good nurseries, babies who are seriously ill at birth, or soon after, do not die within seven days. Their survival goes beyond seven days and deaths beyond that do not come into the statistics.
K. Lalithambica,
Alappuzha
