Why do newborn deaths occur?

In contrast to stillbirths, we know a lot more about the causes of newborn deaths. This wasn’t always the case, because until 2005 neonatal mortality was included as part of total child deaths under the headings ‘perinatal causes’ and ‘other’, rendering them close to invisible.

As we shift from increasing survival, we need to think more and more about the risk of disability. We’ll take a closer look at this issue in the next step.