Maternal and Child Health

The branch of public health devoted to the wellbeing of women through pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period, and of children from birth through early life. The World Health Organization treats the two as one continuum of care, organizing its work around the life course so that every pregnant woman, mother, newborn, child and adolescent can survive and thrive. The field's starkest fact is preventability: about 287,000 women died during and following pregnancy and childbirth in 2020, most from causes manageable with timely care from a skilled health professional, and more than half of maternal deaths occur in fragile and humanitarian settings. Child deaths show the same pattern, with many preventable through vaccination, adequate home care, breastfeeding, better nutrition and access to health services.