Mr. Speaker, next Tuesday, April 7, is World Health Day. It is a day that is observed by 191 member countries of the World Health Organization, including Canada.
World Health Day aims to encourage everyone to think globally and act locally on a specific issue of global importance for public health.
This year's theme is “Safe Motherhood”. Around the world every minute of every day a woman dies of pregnancy related complications, nearly 600,000 each year. Every year nearly 3.4 million babies die within the first week of life. These women and babies die for the same reasons, poor health and inadequate care during pregnancy and childbirth.
As part of the campaign to build greater public awareness of maternal mortality the Canadian Association of Parliamentarians on Population and Development along with the Canadian Society for International Health and CIDA will be commemorating World Health Day with a forum on “Safe Motherhood” on Parliament Hill.