An estimated 13.4 million babies were born pre-term in 2020, with nearly 1 million dying from preterm complications.
A new report released by United Nations agencies and partners said it is equivalent to around 1 in 10 babies born early (before 37 weeks of pregnancy) worldwide.
The decade of action on preterm birth, produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) together with PMNCH, said the world’s largest alliance for women, children, and adolescents, sounds the alarm on a “silent emergency” of preterm birth, long under-recognised in its scale and severity, which is impeding progress in improving children’s health and survival.
The report includes updated estimates from WHO and UNICEF, prepared with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, on the prevalence of preterm births.
Overall, it finds 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.
Preterm birth is now the leading cause of child deaths, accounting for more than 1 in 5 of all deaths of children occurring before their fifth birthday.
