The World Health Organization (WHO) is developing new recommendations to improve care for pregnant and postpartum women living with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).
Around the world, more pregnancies are being affected by NCDs such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart conditions, obesity and other long-term health problems. These conditions may already exist before pregnancy or develop during it. NCDs are now a major cause of poor health among women of reproductive age and are increasingly recognized as key contributors to illness and death during pregnancy and childbirth.
The impact is especially heavy in low‑ and middle‑income countries, where most maternal deaths occur and where NCDs are becoming a growing driver of poor health outcomes. Global evidence also shows a clear shift in the causes of maternal deaths. A rising share is now due to indirect causes, many of them linked to NCDs. Today, indirect causes account for about 23% of maternal deaths worldwide, making them the second leading cause after haemorrhage.
These conditions can affect the health of both the woman and the baby. In the short term, NCDs during pregnancy are linked to complications such as pre‑eclampsia, preterm birth, babies who are either smaller or larger than expected for their gestational age, and higher rates of caesarean section. For example, obesity and high blood pressure in pregnancy increase the chances of developing gestational diabetes or hypertensive disorders and are associated with more caesarean births and newborn complications like macrosomia or the need for neonatal intensive care. The effects can also continue long after pregnancy. Women who experience NCDs during pregnancy face a greater risk of ongoing or worsening chronic conditions, especially cardiovascular disease. Their children are also more likely to develop obesity and other NCDs later in life.
In 2025, WHO released the first set of guidelines, focusing on the management of sickle cell anaemia and diabetes in pregnancy. Even with these new guidelines, important questions remain about how to put these complex recommendations into practice in an equitable way. This is especially challenging in low‑ and middle‑income countries (LMICs), where there are often too few specialists such as maternal–fetal medicine experts or endocrinologists. For many women in LMICs, antenatal care is their first point of contact with the health system. Making sure this moment leads to high‑quality NCD care is still difficult, both in LMICs and in high‑income countries, and NCD management is often overlooked within maternal health services.
WHO is holding an Expert convening on NCD care integration during pregnancy, to be held virtually on 30 June 2026. The group aims to ensure that WHO guideline-derivative tools are practical, implementable, and responsive to health-system realities. Expert will also provide guidance on the dissemination and implementation of new and upcoming clinical guidelines on maternal and perinatal health and NCDs, supporting their integration into existing WHO tools and strengthening continuity of care across the life course.
WHO invites the public to review the experts and stakeholders involved and provide feedback regarding any member deemed to have a significant conflict of interest with respect to the terms of reference for this group. Comments and feedback should be cordial and constructive, and sent to srhmph@who.int. This WHO meeting is by invitation only.
In keeping with the requirements of the WHO Compliance, Risk Management and Ethics Office, short biographies of the expert group members will be posted online. The listed candidates have also submitted a declaration of interest form stating any conflict of interest. WHO has applied its internal processes to ensure that the performance of the above tasks by members of this group will be transparent and without any significant conflict of interests (academic, financial or other) that could affect the credibility of the guideline.
Nevertheless, WHO invites the public to review teh experts and stakeholders involved and provide feedback regarding any member deemed to have a significant conflict of interest with respect to the terms of reference for this group. Comments and feedback should be cordial and constructive, and sent to srhmph@who.int. This WHO meeting is by invitation only.
Note for readers
The experts participating in the convening are doing so on their individual capacity. Affiliations are presented only as a reference. The participation of experts in a WHO meeting does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by WHO nor does it create a binding relationship between the experts and WHO. The biographies have been provided by the experts themselves and are the sole responsibility of the individuals concerned. WHO is not responsible for the accuracy, veracity and completeness of the information provided. In accordance with WHO conflict of interest assessment policy, experts’ biographies are published for transparency purposes. Comments and perceptions are brought to the knowledge of WHO through the public notice and comment process.
Comments sent to WHO are treated confidentially, and their receipt will be acknowledged through a generic email notification to the sender. Please send any comments to the following email: srhmph@who.int. WHO reserves the right to discuss information received through this process with the relevant expert with no attribution to the provider of such information. Upon review and assessment of the information received through this process, WHO, in its sole discretion, may take appropriate management of conflicts of interests in accordance with its policies.