Global Pediatrics Declaration on Maternal Health & Child Survival
Issued by the International Pediatric Association (IPA), Every Woman, Every Newborn, Everywhere (EWENE), and the Gates Foundation
This was released during the IPA Congress 2025 Plenary Session, Fast-Tracking Progress to 2030: Accelerating Innovations and Investments for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health
Introduction
The past thirty years have seen a revolution in child health and survival, and pediatricians have been at the forefront of this development. As trusted health advisors to parents, these guardians of care serve as bridges to health systems, services, and information – and set entire families up for healthy futures.
In recent years, however, the pace of progress has stalled: child mortality, for example, declined at a rate more than 40% slower between 2016 and 2023 than it did between 2000 to 2015. Climate change, pandemics, conflicts, and economic instability have strained health systems and health budgets – and mothers and children are paying the price.
The health of children and their mothers is intertwined. Poor maternal nutrition is a frequent consequence of conflict, food insecurity, and poverty. When a mother faces malnutrition in pregnancy, it increases her child’s risk of malnutrition, a major driver in nearly half of all under-five deaths. Most urgently, when women die during childbirth, their babies have just a 37% chance of reaching their first birthday. These links reveal an urgent truth: the quality and availability of maternal health care plays a deciding role in whether children can survive and thrive.
As pediatricians, we know full well that in some cases child health visits are a family’s main or only entry point into the health systems. And we recognize that caring for a child also means caring for their mother. Fortunately, we now have the knowledge, tools, and interventions necessary to protect them from the major causes of preventable deaths.
Resolving to Accelerate Progress
In response to these realities, world leaders at the Seventy-Seventh World Health Assembly (WHA) in 2024 adopted a historic resolution to renew global commitment to maternal, newborn, and child health. This declaration builds on that momentum.
Call to Action
Aligned with the 2024 WHA Resolution and recognizing the inseparable ties between maternal, newborn, and child health, the International Pediatric Association (IPA) issues the following Call to Action. We urge all pediatricians and national pediatric societies worldwide to:
- • Support the integration of health services for newborns, infants and children, with that of women before, during, and after pregnancy and childbirth;
- • Leverage child health care visits as an opportunity to assess and address the holistic health needs of moms, babies, and children;
- • Call for the allocation of domestic resources toward scaling high-impact interventions to accelerate child survival outcomes;
- • Advocate for the teaching and implementation of priority, evidence-based innovations and interventions that address needs tied to the mother-baby dyad, and save the lives of moms, babies and children;
- • Call for medical training programs to update curricula to reflect the latest data and research on connections between maternal, newborn, and child health, as well as the latest innovations and interventions proven to fast-track progress in maternal, newborn, and child health;
- • Appeal to decision-makers at all levels to create an enabling policy environment to support scale-up of evidence-based interventions;
- • Across regional, national, and subnational pediatrics associations, establish action plans to implement the 2025 Global Pediatrics Declaration on Maternal Health & Child Survival and accelerate progress on maternal, newborn, and child health;
- • Draw on extensive networks of pediatric societies and associations to champion and accelerate child survival through the dissemination of best practices and knowledge exchange; and
- • Establish accountability measures for scaling up key maternal, newborn, and child health innovations and reaching global goals, including Sustainable Development Targets 3.1 and 3.2 at IPA 2025.
Join Us
We invite pediatricians around the world to stand united in this effort. The future of child survival depends on our ability to integrate maternal and child health care-and act now.
Let’s reaffirm our commitment to the next generation by championing maternal health today.
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Dr Naveen Thacker President (2023–25) |
Prof Joseph Haddad President-Elect (2025–27) |
Dr Aman Pulungan Executive Director (2023–25) |
