The theme of this year’s event is dedicated to maternal and newborn health, something that hasn’t been done since 2005.
Today, Monday 7th April 2025, marks World Health Day – an event created by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1948 to commemorate its founding. For the last 77 years the public body have been raising awareness for significant health challenges and campaigning for stronger global health initiatives.
For this year’s event, WHO have chosen the theme ‘healthy beginnings, hopeful futures’ which mirrors maternal and newborn health. Arguably, bringing attention to such a topic has never been more vital. To give context, the latest figures estimate close to 300,000 women lose their life due to pregnancy or childbirth each year, while over two million babies die in their first month of life and around 2 million more are stillborn.
What’s more, current data displays four out of five countries will fail to meet targets for improving maternal survival by 2030 and one in three will be unable to reduce newborn deaths.
The sustainable development goals (SDG) target for maternal deaths is to reduce them to less than 70 per 100,000 by 2030, but research from UNICEF shows in order for this to happen deaths would need to fall by around 15% each year. As it stands, they’re declining at an annual rate of 1.5%.
With these statistics in mind, WHO are calling on global leaders to support women and their children. This year’s campaign goals include:
- Advocating for investments that improve the health for women and babies;
- Encouraging action to support parents as well as health professionals who deliver critical care;
- And, raising awareness around the gaps in maternal and newborn survival.
On the subject of delivering better healthcare, in aid of World Health Day Coventry University Group have published new findings which highlight they’ve seen an increase of 34% in the number of students taking health courses. Overall, 8,917 students enrolled onto healthcare classes within the last academic year, up from 6,624 in 2019/2020.
‘Access to healthcare is vital for all communities – no matter where in the world – to survive and thrive. We are proud that Coventry University Group is teaching health professionals in a number of countries, as well as here in the UK, to allow that access to be a reality,’ Professor Ann-Marie Cannaby, pro-vice chancellor for health at Coventry University said. ‘Whether that is teaching occupational therapists at our top-class facilities in Coventry, nurses in Sri Lanka or midwives in Greece, every single part of that learning makes a real difference to people every single day.’
‘The number of students on our health courses continue to grow and proves that Coventry University Group is helping create better futures wherever we can,’ she added.
To get involved with World Health Day WHO are asking people to spread the word via social media using the hashtag #HopefulFutures and #HealthForAll. Meanwhile, additional ways to participate can be found here.
Photo by Jimmy Conover via UnSplash
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