[ti:UN: Among Babies and Pregnant Mothers, a Death Every 11 Seconds] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]More women and newborns survive now than ever before, [00:06.70]says a new United Nations report. [00:10.80]But it also found that a baby or a pregnant woman [00:15.66]still dies every 11 seconds somewhere in the world. [00:22.44]The UN agencies UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) wrote the report. [00:30.96]It says that child deaths have decreased by almost half since the year 2000. [00:39.44]Deaths of pregnant women have dropped by more than a third. [00:45.24]These reductions are mostly the result of wider availability [00:50.40]of lower-cost, good quality health services. [00:55.80]But the latest data also showed that 5.3 million children worldwide [01:03.43]died in 2018 by the age of five. [01:08.92]Almost half of those deaths happened before a baby turned one month. [01:16.16]The data also showed more than 290,000 women died [01:22.02]because of problems during pregnancy and childbirth in 2017. [01:29.32]Henrietta Fore is UNICEF's lead director. [01:33.26]She said in a report, [01:35.88]"A skilled pair of hands to help mothers and newborns around the time of birth, [01:42.55]along with clean water, adequate nutrition, basic medicines and vaccines, [01:49.49]can make the difference between life and death." [01:54.44]Fore urged governments and health leaders to invest in health services to, [02:00.78]in her words, "do all it takes ... to save these precious lives." [02:08.16]The data showed huge inequalities around the world. [02:12.44]Women and young children in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, [02:17.91]have a much higher risk of death than in other large areas. [02:24.00]Levels of maternal deaths are nearly 50 times higher [02:28.44]for women in sub-Saharan Africa than in wealthy countries. [02:34.28]Babies born there are also 10 times more likely [02:38.70]to die in their first month of life, the report found. [02:44.20]The report did note improvements. [02:47.14]Since 1990, there has been a 56-percent drop in deaths of children [02:54.32]under 15, from 14.2 million a year to 6.2 million in 2018. [03:05.16]Countries in eastern and southeastern Asia have made the most progress. [03:11.88]Those areas have seen an 80 percent drop [03:15.54]in the number of deaths among children under five. [03:21.20]I'm Caty Weaver. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM