Global responsibility to combat diabetes in pregnancy

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Katja Iversen and Leif Fenger Jensen :
Diabetes is one of the most common complications pregnant women face globally, affecting 1 in 7 births and 10-25 percent of pregnancies. However, many governments and health authorities have not yet made the prevention, screening, and treatment of diabetes a public health priority.
The United Nations High-level Meeting on NCDs – taking place during the U.N. General Assembly – offers a chance to change that. As top decision-makers from across the world strategize on how to build healthier communities and prevent the spread of noncommunicable diseases, they must seize the moment and commit to action – to build bridges across communities, forge partnerships across sectors, and deliberately address women’s health, including diabetes in pregnancy.
In 2015, the global community agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals, which outline priority areas for international development. Governments committed to safeguarding the health and well-being of all people, including women and newborns. But today there are still more than 300,000 women dying in pregnancy each year. More than 200 million women are living with diabetes globally, and this number will increase to 308 million by 2045 unless we adopt strategies and policies that recognize the impacts of NCDs on women and newborn health. To honor the SDG commitments, cross-cutting solutions are needed that get at the heart of preventable maternal, newborn, and child deaths and take a holistic approach to health that considers the unique needs for an individual throughout their lifetime.
Addressing diabetes in pregnancy is a good place to start
To this end, Women Deliver, the World Diabetes Foundation, and the NCD Alliance – along with many other partners – have been convening maternal, newborn, child health, and NCD stakeholders to break down silos, accelerate integration, and tackle diabetes in pregnancy. This cross-cutting conversation has permeated global forums, including the FIGO World Congress in 2015, the 2017 and 2018 World Health Assembly, and The Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health. This is progress, but it is simply not enough.
“If the global community increases investment in prevention, screening, and treatment, we can reduce the rate at which women develop diabetes in pregnancy. This, in turn, can mitigate health complications for both woman and child – and help save lives.”
To mobilize transformative change, we want to bring women’s health and diabetes in pregnancy to the high-level meeting’s agenda. We launched a call to action asking governments for commitment and action, outlining the steps they must take in order to save lives, improve maternal health, and curb intergenerational transmission of NCDs.
So far, the call has received the support of nearly 100 organizations worldwide from across civil society, advocacy groups, academia, medical institutions, and the private sector. However, this is only the beginning. We must grow this effort and turn its energy into concrete action – globally, nationally, and in the communities where women live and die.
(Katja Iversen is the president/CEO of Women Deliver. She is an internationally recognized expert on development, advocacy, and communications, has more than 25 years of experience working in NGOs, corporates, and United Nation agencies. Leif Fenger Jensen served as the first managing director of the World Diabetes Foundation, holding the position from 2002 until 2005).

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