Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures

April 7 is World Health Day.

Every year the day serves as an important occasion in raising the governmental and public awareness of global health problems.

The theme of this year’s World Health Day is “Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures: The health of mothers and babies is the foundation of healthy families and communities, helping ensure hopeful futures for us all.”

To protect the life and health of women and babies is vital for ensuring the future of families, communities and mankind at large.

According to data, the maternity mortality rate and the neonatal mortality rate in Southeast Asia declined 2.4 times and 1.7 times faster respectively compared to the global rates between 2010 and 2023.

Despite this progress, more than 2 700 women in the region die monthly during childbirth and postnatal period while at least 1 500 newborns die every day before completing first 28 days of life.

Therefore, on the occasion of World Health Day 2025, WHO declared the start of a year-long campaign on maternal and newborn health to urge the public health organs of governments to ramp up efforts to prioritize women’s long-term health and well-being.

Defining it as an important state policy to protect the life and health of women and children, the DPRK has attained the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals related to maternal and newborn mortality rates, and it is now focusing on higher goals.

Every pregnant woman is registered without exception and they have free access to prenatal and postnatal checkup and other essential services, with the maternal and newborn mortality rates steadily on decline.

Birth attendance is given by professional health workers at a high level at Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, provincial maternity hospitals and obstetrical and gynecological departments of county hospitals and ri clinics.

A range of activities are proactively launched via mass media, network and publications to provide consultation service to women for their health and raise public awareness of maternal and newborn care.