Equity and Respect in Maternal and Infant Healthcare—A Report From the 2025 Venice Forum

ABSTRACT Aim To examine equity and respectful care for women and infants from five perspectives: the global context; economic issues; healthcare systems; legal and policy issues; opportunities to benefit from biomedical research. Methods Narrative review. Results Healthcare accounts for half the variance in health in low‐income countries and substantially less in high‐income settings; however, healthcare investment remains efficient and equitable. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) affects women and infants disproportionately. Women undertake the major proportion of domestic and childcare duties including breastfeeding as unremunerated labour. This is not factored into GDP, so they do not benefit from growth‐promoting incentives. Many countries do not provide adequate paid parental leave, nor the option of sharing leave with the non‐birthing parent, despite their positive impacts on infant wellbeing and family cohesion with economic benefits. The rights of infants have received little attention. Women and infants have less opportunities to benefit from biomedical preclinical, translational, and population research. Only one medicine has been developed specifically for a neonatal disease (surfactant). Conclusion Inequity and disrespect to mothers and infants is a barrier to human progress. Recognising the problem and developing policies and legislation to ensure equitable and respectful care, as well as monitoring effectiveness, are extremely important.