Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures: this is the title of World Health Day in 2025. The aim of the campaign is to protect the health of the mother and the newborn: Despite all the progress, neonatal mortality is still very high, especially in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

While socioeconomic and health inequalities play an important role in these countries, in high-income countries the main causes of neonatal diseases and deaths are preterm births, birth complications and congenital anomalies. In the face of this state of affairs, research and development of drugs and medical devices for the treatment of neonatal diseases are proceeding very slowly, hindering further improvements in care, in particular for premature babies or those requiring intensive care.

This is what is denounced by the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health Commission, which published in 2025 an interesting document to analyze current  problems in neonatology and design new scenarios in order to improve the reception and care of the newborn.