There's a really fascinating history and I'd encourage you to learn about it if you're interested. Forceps go back to 1700s -- much further back than you might assume. The biggies are clean water and vaccinations. IVs for diarrhea are also big. Food security, too. Of course, there's a big difference between the neonatal mortality rate and the death rate for children in general. Childbirth wasn't always as dangerous as people seem to think, but babies and children commonly died of so many things that are now handled routinely (diarrhea) or almost never get at all (cholera etc.) Until modern times, only about half of children lived to adulthood, and this was true of rich and poor alike.