VOA慢速英语:Simple Steps Can Save Millions of Newborn Lives

The latest estimate is that more than three million babies die each year within the first month of life. A report says this is down from 4.6 million deaths in two thousand nine. Still, newborn babies represent about forty percent of all deaths in children under five years old.
据最新估计，每年有超过300万婴儿在出生后的第一个月内死亡。一份报告称，这已经是从2009年的460万婴儿死亡下降下来的。尽管如此，新生婴儿仍然占据五岁以下儿童死亡的40%。

Experts say five countries have the lowest survival rates: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and the Democratic Republic of Congo. India has one-fourth of all deaths within the first four weeks after birth.
专家称，五个国家的婴儿存活率最低：印度，尼日利亚，巴基斯坦，中国和刚果民主共和国。印度婴儿在出生后的前四周内死亡占所有死亡人数的四分之一。

The report is from the private humanitarian group Save the Children and the World Health Organization. Dr. Joy Lawn from Save the Children says simple actions can help save lives.
该报告来自私营人道主义组织救助儿童和世界卫生组织。来自救助儿童组织的Joy Lawn医生称，一些简单的措施就可以帮助拯救生命。

JOY LAWN: “Not delivering the baby onto a dirty surface, drying the baby, keeping the baby warm and feeding the baby straight away resulted in almost a halving of newborn deaths in very rural areas in India.”
Joy Lawn：“不要在肮脏的地方分娩，将婴儿擦干，保持婴儿的温暖，立即给婴儿喂奶。这样做的结果就是几乎可以使印度农村地区的婴儿死亡率减少一半。”

(Field studies show that these simple steps could prevent at least two-thirds of deaths in newborns each year. )
现场研究表明，这些简单的步骤，可以防止每年至少有三分之二的新生儿死亡。

Dr. Lawn says having trained medical workers present would also save many babies and mothers.
Lawn医生称，有训练有素的医务人员在场也可以挽救许多婴儿和母亲的生命。

JOY LAWN: "If you had the health workers with the right equipment and the right drugs in these settings, definitely maternal and neonatal deaths -- child deaths -- could be halved.”
Joy Lawn：“如果有卫生工作者，合适的设备和正确的药物这些配备，母体和新生儿的死亡率肯定能减半。”

And the equipment does not have to be complex. A student team at Rice University in Houston, Texas, developed a low-cost device to assist newborns with breathing problems. The device is called infantAIR. The researchers plan to test it at a hospital in Malawi, then develop training programs for nurses and hospital technicians.
而设备并不必太复杂。得克萨斯州休斯敦Rice大学的一个学生小组研发了一种低成本的设备，以帮助协助呼吸困难的新生儿。这种设备被称为infantAIR。研究人员计划在马拉维一家医院进行测试，然后制定护士和医院技术员的培训计划。

The World Health Organization estimates that about fifteen hundred pregnant women die each day, or about one a minute. Millions of others suffer infections or injuries from pregnancy and childbirth.
世界卫生组织估计，每天约有1500名孕妇死亡，或者说大约每分钟一个。另外有数百万人因怀孕和分娩而受感染疾病或受伤。

A recent conference in Washington presented winning ideas in a competition called "Saving Lives at Birth." There were more than six hundred entries. The top honors went to Dr. Michelle McIntosh and her team at Monash University in Australia.
最近在华盛顿召开的一次会议上提出了在竞赛中获胜的想法，“拯救新生的生命”。共有600个参赛作品。获得最高荣誉的是澳大利亚莫纳什大学的Michelle McIntosh博士和她的研究小组。

They plan to manufacture a dry powder containing the drug oxytocin. Oxytocin reduces the bleeding that causes twenty-five percent of all maternal deaths.
他们计划生产一种含有催产素的干粉。催产素可以减少产后出血。25%的母体死亡是由于产后出血。

The contest organizers included the US Agency for International Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
本次大赛主办方为美国国际开发署和比尔与梅琳达盖茨基金会。

There is evidence that programs to reduce newborn deaths are starting to make progress, especially in parts of South Asia. But progress is slower in Africa. The new report says Africa could need more than one hundred fifty years to reach the current survival rates in the United States or Britain.
有证据表明，减少新生儿死亡的项目开始取得进展，特别是在南亚的部分地区。但是非洲的项目进展缓慢。这份新报告称，非洲需要150多年的时间才能达到目前美国或英国的存活率。