From April 15 – 18, 2013 the first global conference on newborn health, the Global Newborn Health Conference, will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa. On the agenda, maternal and newborn health experts, researchers, and NGOs will collaborate on innovative ways to scale high-impact interventions that will save more newborn lives globally ahead of the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.

The conference is set out to ask: Why are so many newborns in the poorest countries dying? And what can we do as a global community to save them?

Leading up to the conference Dr. Gary Darmstadt (@gdarmsta), Director of the Family Health Division of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and @gatesfoundation will tweet daily “Did You Know” facts about newborn health and you can become a part of the conversation. In What You Might Not Know About Newborn Health, Dr. Darmstadt explains why so many newborns in the world’s poorest countries are dying and why more needs to be done to save the 3 million newborns that die every year.

Become a part of the conversation

You can spread newborn health facts by following the #newborn2013 hashtag and following Gary Darmstadt at @gdarmsta and @gatesfoundation and retweet newborn health facts to your followers.

Here are a few tweets that have already gone out that you can share and retweet.

Did you know simple cost-effective interventions can save many newborn lives? bit.ly/Xwhkwv @JSIhealth #HelpingBabiesBreathe

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Gary L Darmstadt (@gdarmsta) March 27, 2013

Did you know every 3 sec a child death is prevented due to #FrontlineHealthWorkers? bit.ly/zpB67L @savechildren #newborn2013

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Gary L Darmstadt (@gdarmsta) March 26, 2013

Did you know that naming a newborn has become a revolutionary act in Ethiopia? bit.ly/XGApsl #newbornhealth

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Gary L Darmstadt (@gdarmsta) March 26, 2013

Did you know ~830,000 babies could be saved annually if breastfed in 1st h of life? bit.ly/XpxAxk @savechildren #newborn2013

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Gary L Darmstadt (@gdarmsta) March 26, 2013

MT @gdarmsta: ~830,000 babies could be saved annually if breastfed in 1st hour of life bit.ly/XpxAxk @savechildren #newborn2013

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Gates Foundation (@gatesfoundation) March 26, 2013

Did you know that nearly 3 million newborns die each year, globally? gates.ly/11suNZF. Read and share! @gdarmsta #Newborn2013

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Gates Foundation (@gatesfoundation) March 22, 2013

Read more about the Global Newborn Health Conference at www.newborn2013.com and continue to follow the conversation at #newborn2013.

Photo: UN Photo/Staton Winter