'Impatient Optimists' blog reflects on recent Global Maternal Health Conference

In this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Mariam Claeson, deputy director of maternal, newborn, and child health at the foundation; France Donnay, senior program officer for maternal, neonatal and child health at the foundation; and Melanie Walker, deputy director of global development special initiatives at the foundation, reflect on the Global Maternal Health Conference 2013, which took place recently in Arusha, Tanzania. "The research presented at the conference helped to break through some of the false dichotomies in maternal, newborn and child health: care delivered at home versus at a health facility, focus on the mother versus the baby, urban versus rural poor, and sexual reproductive health versus maternal health," the authors write, adding, "This discussion helped to move the agenda forward towards a common platform for maternal health." They discuss some of the conference proceedings and the "manifesto" that emerged from the meeting, which they write will "contribute to the platform for moving forward and to the discussions about new global health goals, post 2015" (1/31).