Vietnam is among the top 10 countries worldwide that have made the greatest strides in saving the lives of newborns over the past two decades, announced Save the Children.

Vietnam brought down the newborn mortality rate by 48 percent between 1990 and 2011, the state-run news agency of Vietnam reported on Wednesday, quoting the children's aid agency's 14th annual State of the World's Mothers report as saying.

Vietnam ranked 86th on the list of best places to be a mother, based on factors of mother's health, education and economic status, as well as critical child indicators such as health and nutrition.

It came in ahead of ASEAN bloc counterparts Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar, but trailed Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, said the report.

The country is on track to achieving child and maternal mortality reduction targets as part of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. However, more than 17,000 babies still die within the first month of life, many of these deaths are preventable, said Doan Anh Tuan, acting country director for Save the Children in Vietnam.

The report also contained a first ever Birth Day Risk Index tracing the death rate for babies in their first day of life in 186 countries. One in 250 Vietnamese babies dies within the first day of life, accounting for one-third of all newborn deaths.

The agency called on Vietnamese leaders to invest in low-cost solutions that can dramatically reduce newborn mortality, strengthen health systems so that women have greater access to skilled birth attendants, and fight underlying causes of newborn mortality, especially gender inequality and malnutrition.

The State of the World's Mothers report compares 176 countries around the globe, showing which are succeeding and which are failing in saving and improving the lives of mothers and their children.