UNICEF estimates 2,900 babies were born on New Year’s day in Ghana

2,928 babies were born in Ghana on New Year’s day according to estimates from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The number is only one percent of the total number of babies born across the world on 1st January 2020.

According to UNICEF, 392,000 babies were born in 2020 on New Year’s Day.

“The beginning of a new year and a new decade is an opportunity to reflect on our hopes and aspirations not only for our future, but the future of those who will come after us,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director in a statement.

“As the calendar flips each January, we are reminded of all the possibility and potential of each child embarking on her or his life’s journey—if they are just given that chance.”

The first new year baby was predicted to be born in Fiji in the Pacific, while the last was predicted to be born in the United States.

In Africa, Nigeria, DR Congo and Ethiopia were estimated to be the top 3 leaders in the number of child births on New Year’s day with 26,039, 10,247 and 8,493 births respectively.

Globally, over half of these births are estimated to take place in eight countries:

1. India — 67,385
2. China — 46,299
3. Nigeria — 26,039
4. Pakistan — 16,787
5. Indonesia — 13,020
6. The United States of America — 10,452
7. The Democratic Republic of Congo — 10,247
8. Ethiopia — 8,493

Each January, UNICEF celebrates babies born on New Year’s Day, an auspicious day for child birth around the world. Babies born today share their birthday with global icons like famous physicist Satyendra Nath Bose and Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank.

In 2018, 2.5 million newborns died in just their first month of life; about a third of them on the first day of life. Among those children, most died from preventable causes such as premature birth, complications during delivery, and infections like sepsis. In addition, more than 2.5 million babies are born dead each year.

Over the past three decades, the world has seen remarkable progress in child survival, cutting the number of children worldwide who die before their fifth birthday by more than half.

But there has been slower progress for newborns. Babies dying in the first month accounted for 47 per cent of all deaths among children under five in 2018, up from 40 per cent in 1990.

UNICEF’s Every Child Alive campaign calls for immediate investment in health workers with the right training, who are equipped with the right medicines to ensure every mother and newborn is cared for by a safe pair of hands to prevent and treat complications during pregnancy, delivery and birth.

“Too many mothers and newborns are not being cared for by a trained and equipped midwife or nurse, and the results are devastating,” added Fore. “We can ensure that millions of babies survive their first day and live into this decade and beyond if every one of them is born into a safe pair of hands,” UNICEF noted in the statement.

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