Tag: maternal health
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Sep 16, 2010
Going Digital: Taking the Maternal Health Community Online
This blog was originally published on the Maternal Health Taskforce blog . It examines the role of technology in changing the realities of global health care and offers a great wrap-up of the 2010 Global Maternal Health Conference in Delhi. The Global Maternal Health Conference has ended—and ended with a bang. The “Maternal health: digital” panel closed the conference with exciting, new, and innovative ways for using technology for global health and maternal health issues. Advances in tools for cross-media storytelling, social networking, digital games, real-time messaging, and mobile and location-aware technologies are being adapted to fit the needs of the maternal health community—and are helping to fuel the increased momentum around the issue. Here are some of the highlights, but watch the full session to get all the details: Subhi Quraishi, at ZMQ Software Systems , talked about using mobile gaming for edutainment, for awareness-raising, and for care support and treatment. Many of us know about using mobile technology for health information, i.e., setting an SMS alert for prenatal and postnatal care for rural women that says,... Read More » -
Sep 2, 2010
Demanding Accountability: Key for Continuing Gains in Maternal Health
I’m really pleased to hear discussion here in Delhi at the Global Maternal Health Conference about our collective accountability. For the past several decades, we have lamented the fact that half a million women’s lives were lost every year to pregnancy-related causes. We now know, however, that our work has, in fact, resulted in fewer women dying or being disabled during pregnancy. Maternal health successes have reenergized the global health community; this newfound energy presents an opportunity we cannot afford to waste. This opportunity has been further enhanced by newfound focus and, we hope, more resources committed to support women and girls. We are accountable, we must be held responsible, we must respond to this opportunity by supporting communities to ensure that all women can choose if and when to get pregnant, and to safely carry a pregnancy and give birth. I’d like to echo thoughts I heard here at the conference from Lynn Freedman, director of the Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program and of the Law and Policy Project at Columbia University. Freedman described accountability as “a critical technical area for... Read More » -
Sep 1, 2010
Proud to be Indian and Making a Difference in Women’s Lives
Sitting here in Delhi at the Global Maternal Health Conference in the India Habitat Center, I feel proud to be Indian. Yes, in part it is that the conference is well-run, and the speakers are thoughtful and thought-provoking, but also it is the fact that India is among the countries showing steady decline in the numbers of deaths related to pregnancy. In fact, the latest The Lancet numbers suggest we may be achieving as many as 4% fewer deaths every year in India. These numbers reflect years of work and commitment on the part of many groups, including the Indian government. At the conference’s opening session, a number of government representatives spoke, including Dr. Montek Singh Ahulwalia, the deputy chairman of the planning commission. He pointed out that in 2004, India spent less than 1% of its GDP on public health; today that number is 1.2%. In the next five years, the government plans to increase spending on health to 3% of the GDP. In terms of the government’s focus on saving women’s lives, Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “Finding the solution is not the challenge; the challenge is in implementing the... Read More » -
Aug 19, 2010
Challenge and Change: Integrating the Challenge of Gender Norms and Sexuality in a Maternal Health Program
CARE and the International Center for Research on Women recently released Challenge and Change: Integrating the Challenge of Gender Norms and Sexuality in a Maternal Health Program. This report documents some of the processes undertaken to integrate gender and sexuality factors into a maternal health project in Uttar Pradesh, India, from 2007-2009. It's available through the HRH Global Resource Center.
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Aug 12, 2010
In Praise of Simplicity
Sometimes we take for granted the elegant solution, and lose sight of the fact that in a world where as many as two billion people do not have the basic health care they need, something needn’t be complicated in order to have an enormous impact. For example: To prevent the spread of infections among newborns and their mothers in rural Armenia, IntraHealth and partners supply women’s health centers with kits comprised of basic equipment such as disposable exam gloves, a mask, an alcohol swab, an umbilical cord clamp, and a clean sheet. Despite longstanding debate regarding the effectiveness of safe birthing kits, a recent systematic review highlights studies noting that clean birthing practices—such as those promoted by the distribution of the kits in Armenia—can prevent newborn deaths and infections, including tetanus. Another IntraHealth program distributes inexpensive mosquito nets to women and children in Senegal , to safeguard them from malaria infections—the leading cause of death among young children in Africa—as they sleep. A $10 bed net treated with... Read More » -
Jun 15, 2010
Giving Birth: the Good News
Last week, Time published “ The Perils of Pregnancy: One Woman’s Tale of Dying to Give Birth ,” a poignant photo essay and article on the grim reality of women dying in childbirth in Sierra Leone. I read the piece with mixed emotions. The images, the tone of the Time article contrasted sharply with everything I heard last week during Women Deliver 2010 conference : family planning use is increasing, child survival is improving, and there have been steady declines in the number of women dying from pregnancy-related causes, according to a recent Lancet article . Yes, Time’s coverage of this pressing issue will capture the public’s attention, a public who might not otherwise know that women in Sierra Leone face a one in eight risk of dying in childbirth. Maybe this article will help the public understand that in the developing world, pregnant women die every day because they bleed to death or from infections, unsafe abortions, eclampsia, obstructed labor and to a lesser degree from “indirect causes” such as malaria, anemia, HIV/AIDS, and cardiovascular diseases. But I also read the article with a feeling of... Read More » -
Apr 16, 2010
Lancet Reports Steady Decline in Maternal Deaths Throughout the World: Key Advances in Saving Lives
Findings from secondary data sources of maternal mortality of 181 countries strongly suggest that the number of women dying from pregnancy or childbirth has declined sharply since 1980. The New York Times covered the story on April 13, citing research published in the Lancet . (Free registration is required to view the Lancet article.) Maternal mortality has always been one of the most difficult indications of progress to measure, as noted in the Lancet article. We are thrilled that new combined methodologies have made it possible to much more accurately track trends in maternal deaths—and that the news is good! The total number of maternal deaths in 2008 was estimated at 342,900, down from 526,300 in 1980. Although, as the Lancet points out, there are still only 23 countries that are truly on track to reach the Millennium Development Goal of a 75% reduction in maternal mortality rates by 2015—many countries are now achieving accelerated progress. Key advances in saving lives have included better care for obstetric complications, which are the leading cause of death for women of reproductive age in developing countries (where... Read More » -
Apr 16, 2010
Lancet Reports Steady Decline in Maternal Deaths Throughout the World: A Perspective from India
Findings from secondary data sources of maternal mortality of 181 countries strongly suggest that the number of women dying from pregnancy or childbirth has declined sharply since 1980. The New York Times covered the story on April 13, citing research published in the Lancet . (Free registration is required to view the Lancet article.) The Lancet’s article is definitely worth noting, and is rich in context and methodological discussion. Exciting news: India is among the leading countries in having reducing maternal mortality in the last 15 years (an average of 4% per year)! This is, indeed, noteworthy in a country with the world’s second largest population (estimated at 1.15 billion in 2009). India now has an estimated maternal mortality rate (at 254 per 100,000 live births) comparable to Indonesia (which is at 229), despite a very different economic situation. This is largely due to decreased total fertility rate, and some increase in maternal education—but also in the significant jump in skilled birth attendance at delivery. IntraHealth’s Vistaar Project in India is proud to be part of the... Read More » -
Mar 16, 2010
Scaling Up Family Planning and Maternal and Child Health Best Practices
I just returned from Bangkok, Thailand where over 400 professionals representing 13 countries in the Asia and Middle East Region came together to wrestle with the complex issue of scaling up family planning and maternal and child health best practices. The USAID Extending Services Project organized this week-long meeting to galvanize country-led efforts to identify, plan for and put in place evidenced-based, cost-effective practices that can greatly reduce maternal, infant and child mortality. I was repeatedly struck by the impressive results being achieved throughout the region, and by the incredible enthusiasm, commitment and courage voiced by our country colleagues – whether it was the Director of the Tamil Nadu, India National Rural Health Mission describing how their government is investing in quality emergency obstetric services; the Deputy Minister of Health of Yemen explaining how they have greatly increased coverage of post-partum family planning; or the Director General for Health Services of the Ministry of Health of Nepal sharing their experience in supporting over 48,000 community health workers who offer key maternal and child health interventions that... Read More »
