Maternal Health News and Research

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Pregnant women warned not to eat for two: Study

According to health experts, there is a “life-long obesity risk of 'eating for two' in pregnancy”. The common advice is reinforced by the results of a study that followed women for a number of years.

19 May 2011

High weight gain during pregnancy can put women at increased risk of becoming obese later in life

Gaining more than the recommended weight during pregnancy can put women at increased risk of becoming obese and developing related health problems, including high blood pressure, later in life.

19 May 2011

U.N. officials recognize International Day of the Midwife

U.N. officials, recognizing the International Day of the Midwife on Thursday, lauded the efforts of midwives worldwide and "called for greater investment to ensure their life-saving services are available to all who need them around the world," the U.N. News Centre reports.

7 May 2011

Secretary of State Clinton launches collaborative mobile application to advance maternal health

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday launched the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action, a "mobile application development partnership aimed at delivering free health care information and tips to pregnant women and mothers around the world via cell phone," Federal Computer Week reports.

5 May 2011

World Malaria Day opinion pieces

Andrew Mitchell, Britain's secretary of state for international development, discusses the U.K.'s approach to combating malaria around the world in a post on the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog."

26 Apr 2011

Obesity and smoking linked to stillbirths: Report

According to experts, excessive weight, smoking and late maternal age over 35 are contributing to thousands of stillbirths each year in high-income countries, including Australia, and the trend looks set to continue. These figures were published in the Lancet medical journal.

13 Apr 2011

African governments must commit more funds to health to meet previous commitments, WHO, UNFPA say

Ten years "since heads of state of African Union countries met in Abuja, Nigeria, and pledged to set a target of allocating 'at least 15%' of their annual budget to improve the health sector, only Rwanda and South Africa have reached the objective," according to a recent WHO report, BMJ News reports/

1 Apr 2011

Economist articles examine agriculture, nutrition issues

In an article examining the relationship between health and agriculture, the Economist writes that while agricultural growth is "no magic solution" to helping people gain access to nutritious foods, "farming ought to be especially good for nutrition."

29 Mar 2011

FY12 State Department funding request cannot be fulfilled, House Foreign Ops committee chair says

It "will not be possible" to meet the funding request for the State Department in President Barack Obama's FY12 budget proposal, Rep. Kay Granger, chair of the House State-Foreign Operations Subcommittee, said at a hearing on Thursday, CQ reports.

14 Mar 2011

Opinions: Investing in science, technology; Indian public-private partnership for NTDs; U.S. global food security investments; Clinton's statements on PEPFAR; U.S. foreign aid; primary care

"Now is the time to support science and technology - especially in difficult economic times. It is the right thing to do, and it makes good economic sense," Alex Dehgan, science and technology adviser to the USAID administrator, and Kaitlin Christenson, coalition director for the Global Health Technologies Coalition, write in an opinion piece appearing on The Hill's "Congress Blog."

10 Mar 2011

Mother and baby report card for NSW

The Government statistics on births in New South Wales Mothers and Babies 2008, which was released on Saturday. It showed that 96,343 babies were born in NSW that year - 12 per cent more than the 85,262 born in 2004.

7 Mar 2011

Recent releases in Global Health

The Importance Of Investing In Adolescent Girls: A Lancet editorial examines the challenges adolescent girls living in developing countries face and the work of the U.N. Adolescent Girls Task Force to help young women overcome these barriers.

5 Mar 2011

Lancet Infectious Diseases examines how resource gaps are creating barriers to reduce child mortality

The Lancet Infectious Diseases' Newsdesk examines how resource gaps in immunizations, health workers and financing are creating barriers to efforts to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goal target to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015, as highlighted in a recent Save the Children report.

3 Mar 2011

House Republicans release CR proposing to cut $100B from FY11 budget

House Republican leaders on Friday evening released legislation "designed to fund the rest of the fiscal year, which includes $100 billion in discretionary spending cuts compared with President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget request," National Journal reports.

15 Feb 2011

Politico looks at how proposed budget cuts could affect U.S. foreign aid, including global health funding

Politico examines how Republicans' proposed budget cuts could affect foreign aid funding. The House Republican majority has recommended combining President Barack Obama's "State and foreign aid requests with 'nonsecurity' domestic spending and to cut appropriations to 2008 levels."

3 Feb 2011

Recent releases in Global Health

Innovative Health Financing Can Benefit Global Health, Pharma: "The launch of pneumococcal vaccination in Nicaragua under AMC [advance market commitment] has shown that innovative approaches to health financing can benefit both global health and pharmaceutical companies," according to a Lancet Infectious Diseases editorial that describes how the roll-out of GAVI initiative is helping to provide developing countries with low-cost pneumococcal vaccines.

28 Jan 2011

NEPAD, GAIN sign Memorandum of Understanding to reduce malnutrition in Africa

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition and the New Partnership for Africa Development today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to significantly contribute to reducing malnutrition in Africa.

25 Jan 2011

U.N. commission to establish benchmarks for $40B maternal, child health initiative commitments

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will travel to Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday to co-chair a commission that aims to establish benchmarks for the U.N.'s $40 billion maternal and child health initiative that was establish at last year's Millennium Development Goal summit, the Canadian Press/Toronto Star reports (1/23).

25 Jan 2011

Eating less during early pregnancy impairs fetal brain development: Study

Eating less during early pregnancy impaired fetal brain development in a nonhuman primate model, researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio reported today.

18 Jan 2011

Opinions: Global health top foreign policy issue; Global food security; Opiate-substitution programs in Eastern Europe; Feed the future; Foreign aid lessons

In response to a story examining 2011's top foreign policy issues, Serra Sippel, president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity, writes in a letter to the editor, published in The Hill, that "[g]lobal health was disturbingly absent from" the story. "Global health policy is at a critical turning point right now with the impending implementation of President Obama's Global Health Initiative, which will change our fundamental approach to health programs and policy," according to Sippel.

7 Jan 2011

Maternal Health News and Research

Pregnant women warned not to eat for two: Study

High weight gain during pregnancy can put women at increased risk of becoming obese later in life

U.N. officials recognize International Day of the Midwife

Secretary of State Clinton launches collaborative mobile application to advance maternal health

World Malaria Day opinion pieces

Obesity and smoking linked to stillbirths: Report

African governments must commit more funds to health to meet previous commitments, WHO, UNFPA say

Economist articles examine agriculture, nutrition issues

FY12 State Department funding request cannot be fulfilled, House Foreign Ops committee chair says

Opinions: Investing in science, technology; Indian public-private partnership for NTDs; U.S. global food security investments; Clinton's statements on PEPFAR; U.S. foreign aid; primary care

Mother and baby report card for NSW

Recent releases in Global Health

Lancet Infectious Diseases examines how resource gaps are creating barriers to reduce child mortality

House Republicans release CR proposing to cut $100B from FY11 budget

Politico looks at how proposed budget cuts could affect U.S. foreign aid, including global health funding

Recent releases in Global Health

NEPAD, GAIN sign Memorandum of Understanding to reduce malnutrition in Africa

U.N. commission to establish benchmarks for $40B maternal, child health initiative commitments

Eating less during early pregnancy impairs fetal brain development: Study

Opinions: Global health top foreign policy issue; Global food security; Opiate-substitution programs in Eastern Europe; Feed the future; Foreign aid lessons

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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