The Most Dangerous Time for Mothers and Babies

世卫组织称母婴最危险时刻是分娩前后

The days immediately before and after child birth appear the most dangerous for mothers and babies.

分娩前后几天对孕产妇或婴儿来说是最为危险的。

The World Health Organization, or WHO, estimates that more than 300,000 women die every year during pregnancy or childbirth. Each year, about 2.6 million babies are stillborn and another 2.7 million babies die during the first 28 days of life, it said.

世界卫生组织估计每年有超过30万女性在妊娠或分娩期间死亡。该组织称每年大约有260万婴儿死产，还有270万婴儿在出生28天内死亡。

Most of the deaths are taking place in South Asia and in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. Many of the deaths could have been avoided with quality health care, WHO officials said.

这些死亡案例大部分发生在南亚和撒哈拉以南非洲。世界卫生组织官员表示，其中多数死亡原本可以通过优质医疗服务来避免。

Another problem is that nearly all babies who are stillborn and half of all newborn deaths are never documented. Those deaths are not reported to or investigated by government health agencies.

另一个问题是，几乎所有死产婴儿以及半数的新生儿死亡从来没有登记。这些死亡没有报告给政府卫生机构，或是政府卫生机构没有调查。

Officials said this means the actual number of stillborn and newborn deaths is probably even higher than the WHO’s own current estimates.

官员们表示，这意味着死产和新生儿死亡的实际数字可能比世界卫生组织目前估计的还要更高。

The United Nations agency says the lack of information makes it harder to find solutions.

世界卫生组织表示，信息缺乏使得它更难找到解决办法。

Ian Askew is director of Reproductive Health and Research at the WHO. He said it is important for all births and deaths to be counted so health officials can make better decisions on how to prevent future deaths.

伊恩·阿斯寇(Ian Askew)是世卫组织生殖卫生和研究司的司长。他说，统计所有出生和死亡非常重要，这样卫生官员就能就如何预防未来死亡做出更好的决策。

In this way, Askew said, countries could improve the quality of health care and stop "millions of families from enduring the pain of losing their infants or mothers."

阿斯寇表示，这样一来，各国就可以提高医疗服务质量，并防止数百万个家庭承受失去婴儿或母亲之苦。

The WHO released three reports earlier this month to help health agencies do a better job collecting information.

世界卫生组织本月初发布了三个报告来帮助卫生机构更好地收集信息。