According to a report of the United Nations Children's Fund "UNICEF", the infant mortality rate in Yemen, declined in 2007 to 55% compared with 90 % in 1990.
The report ranked Yemen 48 in concern with the under-5 infant mortality rates in the world in 2007. It indicated that the mortality rate of newborns in 2004 reached 41% of the 22 million and 389 thousand Yemeni people. The report added that the number of births in Yemen in 2007 is 860 thousand, while the number of deaths of the under-5 children in the same year is 63 thousand.
UNICEF in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health and Population has conducted an assessment study regarding health services provided to mothers and newborn children in five Yemeni governorates during the past years. The study showed that the maternal mortality rate is 356 per 100 thousands live births while it is 111 per 1000 live births among the under-5 infants. The infant mortality rate is 75 deaths per1000 live births, including 37 deaths among newborns.
The 50% of neonatal death was attributed to the low birth weight. Almost 32% of babies born are under the weight of the 2.5 kg.
According to the same study 45% of pregnant women have benefited from one pre-natal care visit and about 12% of women have benefited from post-natal care visit, in addition to one out of five women having babies attended by skilled health workers. It added that 80% of women in Yemen give birth at home due to many reasons the most important of which is reaching health facilities late because of off-road in the villages and rural areas.
With regard to the situation of children and mothers in the world, the report noted that more than half a million women a year die for health reasons related to pregnancy and childbirth, and 4 million newborns a year die during their first 28 days.
The report said that three-quarters of children die in their first week and almost 25 - 50% of children die during the first 24 hours of birth, indicating that 40% of infants' deaths in the world are of the under-5 children. More than 3 million and 500 thousand deaths in 2004 occurred among children.
Globally the number of deaths of the under-5 children dropped from about 13 million in 1990 to about 9 million in 2007 due to the remarkable progress in health services regarding mothers and newborns. On the other hand, the report revealed that estimates of the global annual number of maternal mortality is still high exceeding 500 thousand since 1990 due to a lack of health policies, weak managerial and technical capacities of the health systems in the world, as well as lack of health trained and skilled workers.
It is estimated that 20% of women suffer from pregnancy-related diseases, which eventually lead to serious consequences, affecting the health of the mother and the newborn. It pointed that 10 million women in the world survives unsafe birth annually.
The report stated three main reasons lead to infant mortality in the world; these are 36% deaths caused by the infectious diseases, 27% deaths of prematurely born babies and 23% deaths caused by suffocation among children.
The report addressed actins that governments must take to save the lives of women and children through providing care for mothers during pregnancy, facilitating access to essential maternity services and basic health care to reduce the incidence of maternal and neonatal mortality.