One baby in 10 dies

About one in every 10 babies in Gabon does not live to see its first birthday, while 600 mothers die for every 100,000 live births, according to UNICEF's office in the Central African nation. The "infant and maternal mortality rates have declined continually since independence," UNICEF-Gabon said in a report released recently. "Nevertheless, these rates are still as high as in countries that devote fewer resources to public health..." According to UNICEF-Gabon, social spending in the country has not been cost-effective. The poor indicators stem from "errors in the choice of strategies, insufficient co-ordination of social policies and inefficient resource management," it said. To improve the well-being of children and women, the allocation, use and management of resources need to be improved, according to UNICEF. Infants die mostly as a result of premature births, low weight at birth, diarrhoea, malaria, respiratory infections, malnutrition, anaemia and measles. The direct causes of maternal mortality are mainly haemorrhage, infections, hypertension, malaria and anaemia. Indirect causes include ignorance of the needs of pregnant women, malnutrition, insufficient monitoring of risky pregnancies "and, especially, induced abortions", according to the document. "Although abortion is prohibited by law, it is estimated that one in two women has had at least one abortion," said the report.