Premature Birth

A first ever study has shown that 15 million babies are born prematurely every year and 1.1 million of those babies die shortly after birth due to the complications of premature birth. This as the article states "[makes] premature birth the second-leading cause of death in children under age 5." Specialist Craig Rubens states in the article that even if they tried, they could only reduce the number to a little above 13 million, which is just an 8% decrease. Interestingly, of the top 15 premature birth countries, all but two are in sub-saharan Africa. Premature birth is defined as a being born before the 37th week of pregnancy.

 http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2012/05/03/new_report_shows_15_million_babies_born_too_soon_every_year.html