Health Disparities in Perinatal Epidemiology and Access to Healthcare

Dear Colleagues,

The World Health Orginization has outlined a roadmap to a “world in which every woman, child and adolescent in every setting realizes their rights to physical and mental health and well-being, has social and economic opportunities, and is able to participate fully in shaping prosperous and sustainable societies.” In this bold new world, the future is transformed to ensure that every newborn, pregnancy, and child not only survives, but thrives.

However, despite this ambitious roadmap and tremendous progress over recent decades, millions of pregnant people, newborns and children continue to die from largely preventable or treatable causes. Globally, there were approximately 2.4 million neonatal deaths and 300,000 pregnancies resulting in death in 2019, with the vast majority occuring in sub-Saharan Africa. Both children and parents face substantial disparities in their chances of survival within and between regions. There is further growing evidence that the recent COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these disparities, slowing progress or even reversing trends in maternal and child health by disrupting essential health services. Indeed, with wide variation in the implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccine uptake across and even within countries, new maternal and child health disparities may well emerge directly as a consequence of this pandemic.

The health of parents and children is inexticably interrelated, and impacted by multiple socio-economic factors at individual, community, and societal levels. This includes the accessibility, availability, acceptability and quality of healthcare services across the reproductive life course. To achieve the ambitious global development goals outlined by the WHO’s Global Strategy and Sustainable Development Goals, disaggregated spatial and temporal health trends are vital now more than ever to facilitate monitoring and evaluation efforts, and to measure the progress made by the year 2030.

This Special Issue of Healthcare seeks commentaries, original research, reports, and reviews on inequities and disparities in maternal and child health and access to healthcare services across the perinatal period, broadly defined here as pregnancy through to the first year postpartum. This Special Issue aims to inform global development targets, as well as emergent needs and changes in health policies which are currently undergoing rapid transition, such as the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States. We envision that policy and decision makers at national and global levels will use the information published in this Special Issue as a resource to monitor change, target resources towards vulnerable populations, and develop progressive health policies.

It is our hope that these efforts will be one step of many to help achieve an end to preventable maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent deaths by 2030.

Dr. Corrine Warren Ruktanonchai
Guest Editor

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• • health disparities
• • maternal and newborn health
• • epidemiology
• • perinatal health