The Lancet: Every newborn, every mother, every adolescent girl
“With the launch of a new report by Save the Children this week, the momentum to achieve substantial reductions in neonatal mortality is accelerating. … One area of dedicated and targeted intervention, although mentioned in passing in the report, deserves more attention. Those called ‘young mothers’ in the report, but who are in fact children bearing children — 16 million girls aged 15-19 years and two million younger than 15 years — have a higher risk of adverse maternal and birth outcomes, including stillbirths, neonatal deaths, preterm births, small-for-gestational-age babies, and complications during birth than do those older than 19 years. … Prevention of stillbirths and neonatal mortality and morbidity must include greater attention to adolescent girls in particular. It is time to add the letter ‘A’ to RMNCH” (3/1).