September is Infant Mortality Awareness Month

In this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Sharon D'Agostino, vice president of worldwide corporate contributions and community relations for Johnson & Johnson, reflects on the two-day Child Survival Call to Action held in mid-June, writing, "An estimated seven hundred people from around the world traveled to the event in Washington, D.C., all embracing the theme that every child deserves to have a 5th birthday, no matter where on this planet she or he is born." She continues, "I believe that we all have a responsibility to shout for newborns, for the soon-to-be-born, and for their mothers who so often are at risk of dying or suffering serious injury in trying to bring a new life into the world." She notes September is Infant Mortality Awareness Month and states, "I urge us to proclaim September 'Infant SURVIVAL Month' and to do all that we can to increase survival rates, especially in areas where the need is the greatest" (9/7).