Global Week for Action on NCDs
The first Global Week for Action on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), 3-9 September, in the lead-up to the third High-level Meeting on the prevention and control of NCDs during this year’s UN General Assembly, provides FIGO member societies with the opportunity to call out for the addition of vital language on maternal health in the upcoming UN resolution on prevention and control of NCDs.
Maternal and child health is inextricably linked with non-communicable diseases.
Approximately 130 million pregnancies resulting in live births globally every year, an estimated 21 million are impacted by hyperglycemia (diabetes), about 7-8 million by hypertension (high blood pressure), about 42 million by maternal overweight and obesity, 26 million by maternal undernutrition and 56 million by maternal anemia.
Not only do these conditions increase the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes including pregnancy loss and increase perinatal morbidity and mortality but they also identify both the mother and the offspring as being at very high risk for future diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and strokes.
UN Draft Resolution Fails to Mention Pregnancy - Take Action!
The current UNGA HLM3 NCDs: Zero draft outcome document fails to mention and recognise the fundamental link between maternal health and NCDs, and thus, the attainment of SDG 3. Your help is needed - compel your Ministry of Health representative/other relevant official to ensure your country’s representative at the high level meeting on 27 September reads a statement that draws attention to this significant flaw.
The following text provides language you may want to consider using to compel them/for your country’s statement:
Language which FIGO would like to see included:
- Maternal and child health is inextricably linked with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and their risk factors, specifically such as prenatal maternal malnutrition and low birth weight create a predisposition to obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes later in life, and that pregnancy conditions, such as maternal obesity and gestational diabetes, are associated with similar risks in both the mother and the offspring.
- Malnutrition, obesity and hyperglycemia in pregnancy are significant public health challenges with adverse impact on maternal and newborn child health and significant implications for future burden of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardio metabolic disorders globally.
- All programs on NCD prevention and control must therefore begin with and substantially focus on the health and well-being of adolescent girls and women planning pregnancy, during pregnancy and post pregnancy, particularly in pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes, hypertension, excessive weight gain and obesity.
- This approach offers a unique opportunity to integrate maternal and child health services with health promotion and NCD prevention thereby providing a bridge to create more integrated services at the primary care level.
Taking part in this campaign?
Please let us know or tweet:
#maternalhealth & child health is inextricably linked with #NCDs. Yet the current text in the draft #HLM3 Zero Outcome document fails to recognise this link. We are calling on our government to draw attention to this flaw #EnoughNCDs
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