More than one in five deaths among children under five occurs during the first week of life, most due to malnutrition in the mother and fetus leading to low birth weights, and compounded by poor antenatal care and lack of skilled birth attendants. Regional estimates of U5MR in 2003 vary from a low of nine per 1000 live births for developed countries to a high of 172 per 1000 live births in sub- Saharan Africa (see Figure 3). In relation to the goal, the difference between regions in the reduction of U5MR over the period 1990-2003 is striking. Northern Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and south-eastern Asia have made rapid progress, but other regions are clearly.
