Maternal Health News and Research

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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

IRIN examines efforts to train midwives, improve maternal health in Laos

"In 2010, for the first time in more than 20 years, 140 midwives graduated in Laos but specialists say their skills may go untapped because the country's women are not used to visiting health workers," IRIN reports. "Only 34 percent of women in Laos seek the advice of medical professionals; even fewer see one when they are pregnant, according to government data from 2009-2010," the news service writes.

17 Nov 2011

Education for women, girls a more effective strategy than family planning to solve global problems

In a post in the National Review's "The Corner," Christopher White, international director of operations for the World Youth Alliance, responds to a New York Times opinion piece published Wednesday in which columnist Nicholas Kristof hailed family planning as a solution to "many of the global problems that confront us."

5 Nov 2011

Zanzibar's Islamic leaders use Qur'an to shift attitudes about sex, contraception, HIV/AIDS

The Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog" examines how religious leaders on the island of Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, are using the Qur'an to shift attitudes about the issues of sex, contraception, and HIV/AIDS in an effort to reduce HIV infection, improve maternal health and curb rapid population growth. "Their aim is to shift deep-rooted views in their devout Islamic society that contraception is a sin," according to the blog.

2 Nov 2011

Exclusion of family planning, HIV prevention from Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon partnership is 'counter-intuitive'

In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Serra Sippel, president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity, examines the Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon partnership, which was launched last month by PEPFAR in conjunction with the George W. Bush Institute, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and UNAIDS with the aim of "integrating cervical and breast cancer education, screening, and treatment with HIV services."

2 Nov 2011

Advocates call for supplementary budget to address shortage of health workers, midwives in Uganda

"The shortage of health workers in Uganda is a 'crisis,' says the Minister of Health, and activists say expectant mothers are bearing the brunt of the country's staffing deficiency," IRIN reports.

29 Oct 2011

University kicks off campaign to collect mobile phones to help fund maternal health programs in Congo, Nepal

On Tuesday at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Chelsea Clinton, board member of the William J. Clinton Foundation, and Christy Turlington Burns, founder of Every Mother Counts, helped launch the GW + Phones = Hope campaign, which is "working with the national nonprofit Hope Phones to collect phones to benefit maternal health programs in Democratic Republic of Congo and Nepal," the "GW Hatchet" blog reports.

21 Oct 2011

Founder of Every Mother Counts to address AAP National Conference

Fashion model and Global Maternal Health Advocate Christy Turlington Burns will speak at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on International Child Health meeting at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition in Boston on Saturday, Oct. 15, from 4:15-5 p.m. ET.

15 Oct 2011

Council On Foreign Relations examines maternal health in Afghanistan

Isobel Coleman, senior fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy and director of the Civil Society, Markets and Democracy Initiative at the Council On Foreign Relations, reports on the council's website on maternal health in Afghanistan, writing that one out of 11 Afghan women is likely to die in childbirth during her lifetime; Afghan women are 200 times more likely to die giving birth than by a bomb or bullet. Not surprisingly, Save the Children this year ranked Afghanistan the worst country in the world to be a mother. Yet, there are some positive signs.

4 Oct 2011