World Patient Safety Day: Safe care for every newborn and every child
May 28, 2025
The theme for World Patient Safety Day 2025 is ‘Safe care for every newborn and every child.
Country action
Bangladesh
©UNICEF/Paul. A nurse provides essential newborn care right after delivery in the operating room at Thakurgaon District Hospital, Bangladesh, in September 2014.
Every Woman Every Newborn in Bangladesh
Download the full profile with additional key demographics, progress against milestones, and more.
National mortality targets
Maternal mortality ratio
70 per 100,000 live births by 2030
Stillbirth rate
12 PER 1,000 total births by 2030
Neonatal mortality rate
12 per 1,000 live births by 2030
Progress to meet the national maternal, newborn mortality and stillbirth reduction targets
©UNICEF/WHO.Attribution needed
Progress to meet Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere coverage targets
MNH Acceleration Plan highlights
In 2024, the priorities in Bangladesh’s MNH Acceleration Plan include:
- Establish inpatient care for small and sick newborns in primary and secondary level facilities, and upgrade the existing special care newborn units care with machines providing respiratory support (continuous positive airway pressure – CPAP).
- Engage communities in the provision and utilization of essential maternal and newborn care irrespective of economic, gender, ethnicity, disability and other disparities. Conduct special communication campaign in hard-to-reach areas to reach the population.
- Develop social protection and financing schemes to ensure universal coverage of priority maternal and new born health care services.
©UNICEF/Quarmyne. Pregnant women attending an antenatal clinic at a Reproductive and Child Health facility in Savelugu, in the Northern Region of Ghana, in 26 May 2015.
Quality of care in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is one of the 11 countries that set-up the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (Quality of Care Network). Bangladesh’s successes in improving quality of care for maternal, newborn and child health are essential to help reduce maternal and newborn mortality and stillbirths. These include:
- Bangladesh National Health Care Quality Strategy has been approved by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in July 2022.
- The World Health Organization’s (WHO) standards for improving quality of maternal and newborn care in health facilities were adapted and adopted.
- Quality of Care has been incorporated into the national joint ENAP/EPMM action plan (now Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere).
- The WHO Labour Care Guide was introduced. It is a tool that aims to support good-quality, evidence-based, respectful care during labour and childbirth, irrespective of the setting or level of health care.
News and events
Maternity Matters:
May 16, 2025
Devex, in partnership with MSD for Mothers and EWENE, is hosting an event on the sidelines of the 78th World Health Assembly to explore how to accelerate progress in maternal and newborn survival.
Ministers to discuss impact of overseas development assistance (ODA) cuts on maternal, newborn and child health, and mitigation strategies
May 14, 2025
Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere, co-led by WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA, is organizing a ministerial roundtable dinner on May 17th, on the sidelines of the 78th World Health Assembly, to discuss the impact of significant ODA cuts on maternal and newborn health and child survival, and possible responses to this challenge.
Resources
State of the world’s nursing report 2025
May 22, 2025
The 2025 edition of the State of the world’s nursing provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the nursing workforce. The report features new indicators on
Joint Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere and Child Survival Action on the impact of ODA cuts
May 16, 2025
Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere and Child Survival Action joint messages on the impact of ODA cuts on maternal, newborn and child health. Prepared for
The Midwifery Accelerator: Expanding health care for women and newborns
April 8, 2025
The Midwifery Accelerator: Expanding Quality Care for Women and Newborns is a call to invest in midwifery care to save and transform the lives of women and their newborns around the world.