Maternal Health News and Research

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Researchers to conduct large meta-analysis of fetomaternal complications in COVID-19

A new preprint on the medRxiv* server describes the protocol written for a study that aims to perform a systematic analysis of all the data available on the effect of this syndrome on pregnancy.

1 Mar 2021

Adequate spacing between births can reduce stunting in children

Adequate spacing between births can help to alleviate the likelihood of stunting in children, according to a new study from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI).

18 Feb 2021

Study shows the impact of paid maternity leave on maternal health

A study of women who were new mothers in the late 1970s found that those who were given longer, paid maternity leave lived healthier lives as they entered middle age.

9 Feb 2021

Medicaid expansion in New York associated with reduction in severe maternal morbidity

A study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center has found that Medicaid expansion in 2014 in New York State was associated with a statistically significant reduction in severe maternal morbidity in low-income women during delivery hospitalizations compared with high-income women.

29 Jan 2021

Trump administration approves first Medicaid block grant, in Tennessee

With just a dozen days left in power, the Trump administration on Friday approved a radically different Medicaid financing system in Tennessee that for the first time would give the state broad authority in running the health insurance program for the poor in exchange for capping its annual federal funding.

8 Jan 2021

Study examines how obesity affected postpartum hemorrhage outcomes at a tertiary care center

Postpartum hemorrhage, or excessive bleeding after delivery, is still one of the leading causes of severe maternal injury and death in the United States. And the rise in obesity among pregnant women has been linked to increased rates of this potentially serious, largely preventable obstetric complication.

22 Dec 2020

WHO and HRP launch “Labour Care Guide” to improve women’s experience of childbirth

WHO and HRP launch the Labour Care Guide to improve every woman's experience of childbirth, and to help ensure the health and well-being of women and their babies.

15 Dec 2020

Iceland joins with WHO to support work towards integrated brain health

His Excellency Mr Harald Aspelund, Ambassador of the Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva and Ms Jane Ellison, WHO Executive Director for External Relations and Governance signed a new contribution agreement to support work towards integrated brain health, that will be led by a newly established unit within the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use.

8 Dec 2020

Maternal stress may lead to preterm births, accelerate child's biological aging

Why do some people age faster than others? One potential answer, a new UCLA-led study indicates, is that a mother's stress prior to giving birth may accelerate her child's biological aging.

30 Nov 2020

Bangladesh women living in poorer households reluctant to use maternal health care

Women living in poorer households of Dhaka, Bangladesh are unwilling to give birth at maternal healthcare facilities.

23 Oct 2020

Women living in least restrictive states are more likely to give birth to low-birth weight babies

American women living in states with less restrictive reproductive rights policies are less likely to give birth to low-birth weight babies, according to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier.

13 Oct 2020

Ground-breaking maternal health trial starts across 80 hospitals in Asia and Africa

Researchers based at the University of Birmingham are starting a ground-breaking maternal health trial across 80 hospitals in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Sri Lanka.

7 Oct 2020

New report estimates the global burden of stillbirths

Almost 2 million babies are stillborn every year – or 1 every 16 seconds – according to the first ever joint stillbirth estimates released by UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank Group and the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

7 Oct 2020

COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to child and maternal health services, show surveys

With the number of under-five deaths at an all-time recorded low of 5.2 million in 2019, disruptions in child and maternal health services due to the COVID-19 pandemic are putting millions of additional lives at stake

9 Sep 2020

Historical redlining associated with adverse birth outcomes

Past discriminatory housing practices may play a role in perpetuating the significant disparities in infant and maternal health faced by people of color in the U.S., suggests a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.

15 Aug 2020

Study reveals women’s experiences in maternity care based on insurance type

Giving birth in the United States is a radically different experience based on race and income, illustrated most brutally by the Black and Indigenous maternal mortality crisis.

28 Jul 2020

Age and diabetes the biggest risk factors for death in pregnant COVID-19 patients

A recent research letter published on the preprint server medRxiv in June 2020 evaluates the risk factors that may lead to higher mortality in pregnant women with COVID-19 in middle-income countries.

4 Jun 2020

Policies increase childbirth in health facilities

Women with health insurance were 15 percentage points more likely to have facility-based childbirth.

20 Apr 2020

Pregnancy and fetal outcomes with COVID-19

A new study published preprint in the non-peer-reviewed journal medRxiv in April 2020 provides a systematic review of maternal and fetal outcomes in pregnancy affected by COVID-19, as well as the risk of vertical transmission of the virus.

16 Apr 2020

Study highlights the need for improved access to midwifery units

The study, which was led by experts at the University of Nottingham, with collaborators from City, University of London and De Montfort Universities, and was funded by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, looked at six geographical areas in England.

19 Feb 2020