As the news broke that the Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a little girl, anti-poverty organisation ONE joins in the nation’s excitement at the arrival of the newest member of the royal family.

Diane Sheard, UK Director of ONE, said: “Like other mums around the world, the Duchess of Cambridge was no doubt feeling reassured by the excellent care she is receiving.

“The new royal baby has been born into a world where more and more mothers are secure in the knowledge that they and their young children will receive essential healthcare.

“While there has been some progress on maternal health in the past 15 years, there are still millions of women and children who suffer as a result of inadequate care, including not having a midwife, or even electric light. We can change this by making sure that more life-saving UK aid goes to those who have the least and that it is focused on girls and women.”

With the eyes of the world focused on one mother and child, campaign group ONE is highlighting some important facts that have changed the lives of other mothers-to-be from the past 25 years.

Did you know that:

• Since 1990, both maternal and child mortality have been reduced by 50% worldwide and access to reproductive health services has improved.¹
• Between 2001 and 2012, new HIV infections among children fell by 52 per cent.²
• Thanks to the accelerated progress in reducing child mortality, 100 million children’s deaths were averted – among them some 24 million newborns – who would have died had mortality remained at 1990 rates.³
• The under-five mortality rate is falling faster than at any other time in the past two decades.³
• Between 2000 and 2013, there has been a 58% decline in child deaths in Africa.⁴
• Between 2000 and 2012, malaria deaths among under-fives fell by 51%. If the trend continues, deaths will fall by 63% for children under five and by 56% for all ages by 2015.⁵
• The first 28 days of life – the neonatal period – is the most vulnerable time for a child’s survival. The worldwide neonatal mortality rate fell by 40 per cent between 1990 and 2013 – from 33 to 20 deaths per 1,000 live births. Over the same period, the number of newborn babies who died within the first 28 days of life declined from 4.7 million to 2.8 million.⁶
• Around 44% of pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries received HIV testing and counselling in 2013, up from 26% in 2009.⁷
• From 2005-2013, there has been a steady decline in the number of AIDS-related deaths among women of reproductive age and a 41% reduction in the number of maternal deaths among women living with HIV.⁷
• Vaccination resulted in a 75% drop in measles deaths between 2000 and 2013 worldwide.⁸

Sources

1. Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2013 – Estimates by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, The World Bank and the United Nations Population Division, 2014 (Report).

2. “Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV,” AVERT (Web Page).

3. UNICEF DATA – CHILD MORTALITY, UNDER-FIVE (Web Page).

4. “Malaria Deaths Decline,” Malaria No More (Web Page).

5. “Child Malaria Deaths Decline by 50%,” UN Global Health Forum (Web Page).

6. UNICEF DATA – CHILD MORTALITY, NEONATAL (Web Page).

7. Gap Report, UNAIDS, 2014 (Report).

8. “Measles,” World Health Organization (Web Page).