The United Nations is predicting that come Oct. 31, the world population will hit the seven billion mark - and keep expanding till it reaches 9.3 billion by the year 2050. Much of this increase, according to the Population Division of the U.N.'s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), is projected to come from 58 high-fertility countries: 39 in Africa, nine in Asia, six in Oceania and four in Latin...

Stillbirths are largely invisible as a social and public health problem. Millions of families experience stillbirth, yet these deaths remain unenumerated, unsupported, and the solutions undercooked. Calling upon the international community and individual countries for action, British medical journal The Lancet has said better counting of stillbirths alongside maternal and neonatal deaths and strategic programmatic action would bring stillbirths under account. The Lancet's series on stillbirths suggests that millions of such cases...

More than 7,200 babies are stillborn every day 1.8 million stillbirths occur in just 10 countries India has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of stillbirths in the world. This finding comes after the country recorded the worst female child sex ratio ever (Census 2011). India figures at the top of 10 countries that have the highest number of stillbirths, according to the Stillbirth series published in the British medical journal,...

Bihar did not record a single stillbirth in 2008 — death of an unborn child in mother's womb during the last trimester of pregnancy (after 28 weeks' gestation). Even before you could sigh in disbelief, truth to be told that India tremendously under reports stillbirth figures. According to the sample registration survey in 2008, conducted by the registrar general's office, the country recorded eight stillbirths per 1,000 births — a highly improbable...

The head of the United Nations population fund today urged Member States and development partners to take quick action to facilitate universal access to reproductive health, the empowerment of women and poverty alleviation. “We need to keep pushing to make universal access to reproductive health a reality,” said Babatunde Osotimehin, the Executive Director of UN Population Fund (UNFPA). “Investing in the health and rights of women and young people is not an...