World Health Day 2018: Maternal Health Care and Universal Health Coverage

By: Kayla McGowan, Project Coordinator, Women and Health Initiative, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

This Saturday, 7 April is World Health Day, and this year’s theme is universal health coverage (UHC). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), UHC means meeting everyone’s right to access high quality essential health services where and when they need them—without financial difficulty. Currently, however, at least half of the world’s population is unable to realize this right.

Accessible maternal health care is a critical component of UHC that affects women, their families, communities and nations at large. WHO uses 16 essential health services across four categories to measure the level and equity of UHC in countries. Indicators for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health include family planning, antenatal and delivery care, full child immunization and health-seeking behavior for pneumonia. Beyond access, the quality of maternal health care matters, and every woman, everywhere has the right to high quality maternal health care. But the question remains—how can we ensure optimal maternal health care for all?

We have rounded up the following resources exploring maternal health care and UHC:

Improving Maternal Health Through Universal Health Coverage
Advancing Dialogue on Maternal Health Series | February 2014

—

Support UHC on World Health Day

Access campaign resources>>

Get involved>>

Use #HealthForAll and #WorldHealthDay on social media

World Health Day 2018: Maternal Health Care and Universal Health Coverage

Research

Blog Posts

Resources