World Health Day 2025

World Health Day, celebrated on 7 April 2025, will kick off a year-long campaign on maternal and newborn health. The campaign, titled Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures, will urge governments and the health community to ramp up efforts to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths, and to prioritize women’s longer-term health and well-being.

WHO and partners will also share useful information to support healthy pregnancies and births, and better postnatal health.

In June 2024 the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) , Dr. Jarbas Barbosa Jr., issued an urgent call to action to reduce maternal mortality in the Americas . In 2020, Latin America and the Caribbean experienced one maternal death every hour, reversing two decades of progress in maternal health indicators in the region. 
 

Helping every woman and baby survive and thrive

This task is critical. Based on currently published estimates, close to 300 000 women lose their life due to pregnancy or childbirth each year, while over 2 million babies die in their first month of life and millions more are stillborn. That’s roughly 1 preventable death every 7 seconds.

Based on current trends, a staggering 4 out of 5 countries are off track to meet global targets for improving maternal survival by 2030.
 

Listening to women and supporting families

Women and families everywhere need high quality care that supports them physically and emotionally, before, during and after birth.

Health systems must evolve to manage the many health issues that impact maternal and newborn health. These not only include direct obstetric complications but also mental health conditions, noncommunicable diseases and family planning.