Maternal Health News and Research

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Recognizing Global Fund's integration of reproductive health into focus on AIDS, TB, malaria

Noting the successes of the first 10 years of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as well as the funding challenges it faces moving forward, Elisha Dunn-Georgiou, vice president of advocacy at Population Action International, writes in an opinion piece in GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog that the Fund "has always upheld the idea that their work contributes to achievement of all of the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)" and "always accepted and considered proposals that include reproductive, maternal, and child health interventions, when countries could demonstrate that they would have an impact on AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria."

13 Feb 2012

Southern Medical Journal now available for the iPad

In keeping with its mission of helping physicians to provide the best possible care to patients in an era of rapidly changing medical practice, the Southern Medical Journal (SMJ) is now available for the iPad.

8 Feb 2012

Viewpoints: GOP dragging heels on payroll tax, doc fix plan; Opinions still heated on contraception rule

Republicans in Congress seem to have forgotten the embarrassment they suffered late last year for trying to block a payroll tax cut for millions of wage-earners.

7 Feb 2012

MindChild seeks FDA pre-market clearance for MERIDIAN non-invasive fetal heart monitor

MindChild Medical, Inc. today announced that it has successfully completed filing of a Pre-Marketing Notification Application (510(k)) with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its MERIDIAN non-invasive fetal heart monitor.

6 Feb 2012

Ban calls on business leaders to increase investment in women's education, health at WEF

Speaking at an event organized by the Every Woman Every Child initiative on Thursday, "Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [called on] business leaders attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, to increase their investment in women's education and health to ensure their well-being and encourage their participation in the world economy," the U.N. News Centre reports.

30 Jan 2012

Experts debate pros, cons of Sierra Leone's ban on traditional birth attendants

The Guardian's "Poverty Matters" blog asks whether Sierra Leone was right to ban traditional birth attendants (TBAs) from assisting deliveries 18 months ago, writing, "Although [TBAs] are often poorly trained and sometimes use unsafe delivery procedures, for most women in rural Sierra Leone they are a lifeline."

19 Jan 2012

Blog posts respond to legislation enacted in Brazil requiring registration of all pregnancies

The following summarizes two blog posts published in response to Provisionary Measure 557 (PM 557), legislation enacted by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on December 27 that will require all pregnancies to be registered with the government.

11 Jan 2012

VOA News examines maternal mortality in Somalia

"The World Health Organization says Somalia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world," VOA News reports, adding, "In southern Somalia, the situation is grave, and the recent famine has made the health crisis for mothers and infants even worse."

10 Jan 2012

ABC News' 20/20 examines maternal health, mortality worldwide

ABC News' 20/20 on Friday examined maternal health and mortality worldwide in a program titled "Giving Life: A Risky Proposition." The show was a sort of "sequel" to a series launched last year called "Be the Change: Save a Life," host Diane Sawyer said.

20 Dec 2011

3-year study identifies key interventions to reduce maternal, newborn, child deaths

A three-year study conducted by the WHO, Aga Khan University, and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) "has identified key interventions to reduce maternal, newborn and child deaths," PANA/Afrique en Ligne reports.

17 Dec 2011

Mothers of very low birth-weight infants suffer worse health

Babies born at very low birth weights struggle in their early years and a new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers suggests that their mothers do, too.

14 Dec 2011

Reuters examines maternal mortality in Afghanistan

"An Afghan woman can expect to have an average 5.1 babies in her lifetime, the highest fertility rate in Asia," Reuters writes in the first of two articles examining childbirth and maternal mortality in Afghanistan. The news service adds that "giving birth a common, and frequent experience -- but mothers say it is too often also hard, lonely and frightening."

13 Dec 2011

Forbes interviews Babatunde Osotimehin about his work in HIV/AIDS, maternal health, leadership

Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and under-secretary-general of the U.N., answers questions about his work from Forbes contributor Rahim Kanani in this interview excerpt.

9 Dec 2011

Report says African mothers confused over infant-feeding options to prevent HIV transmission

Some women in African nations are "dangerously confused about the best nutritional path to protect their children from contracting [HIV]," a new report, based on research by community health workers from Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, shows, PlusNews reports.

9 Dec 2011

Needle-free anemia test to be launched in February, Guardian reports

The Guardian profiles Biosense Technologies, an Indian startup company, and its first product, "the world's first needle-free anemia scanner," called ToucHb, which will be launched in February.

7 Dec 2011

Merck, PATH form partnership to fight causes of maternal mortality

Pharmaceutical company Merck (MSD) announced Monday it has "awarded a grant to PATH, a global health nonprofit, to identify game-changing technologies with the potential to save the lives of women during pregnancy and childbirth in low-resource settings," according to a Merck press release.

7 Dec 2011

'Simple solutions' available to improve family health

"Although advances in vaccines, nutrition and family health have dramatically reduced the number of child deaths in the past 50 years, nearly eight million children younger than five still die every year," Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, writes in this CNN opinion piece.

2 Dec 2011

Papua New Guinea experiencing 'crisis in maternal health,' government task force says

"Decades of neglect, a failing health system and remote mountainous topography have created a 'crisis in maternal health,' according to a government taskforce in Papua New Guinea (PNG)," IRIN reports.

2 Dec 2011

Quick impact interventions have not benefited health MDGs equally

Serious global discussions have begun in the lead-up to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) deadline of 2015. Governments and international agencies are asking what has been achieved, what still needs to be done and how best to proceed after the deadline.

29 Nov 2011

Clinical value of OrSense NBM 200 non-invasive Hb monitor for maternal health to be presented at 4th COGI

OrSense Ltd., announced today that two oral presentations on the clinical value of its NBM 200 non-invasive hemoglobin (Hb) monitor for maternal health and anemia monitoring prior, during and post delivery of pregnant women will be presented at the 4th Asia Pacific Congress on Controversies in Obstetrics Gynecology and Infertility (COGI).

21 Nov 2011