A campaign encouraging women in China to give birth in hospital has cut newborn deaths by half, a study in The Lancet says, BBC reported.

Since 2000, China has been promoting hospital delivery, and nearly all babies are now born in hospital except in the poorest regions.

In urban hospitals in China, the mortality rate for newborns is five per 1000. For babies born at home in urban areas it is 17 per 1000.

The findings also showed that babies born in hospitals in the poorer rural areas were almost four times more likely to die than babies born in hospitals in urban areas.