Safe Mothers and Newborns Leadership Workshop participant Dr. Hemant Shah is Chief of Party, Technical Support Unit for CARE. He previously worked as the Director of the State reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, adolescent unit in Bihar as well as a maternal health expert in the Integrated Family Health Initiative project. Dr. Shah discusses challenges in maternal newborn health in Bihar as well as how quality leadership can help us achieve the Sustainable Development Goals…read more
Event Recap: After Copenhagen, What Next for Women and Girls?
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Last week, experts in maternal newborn health gathered at the Wilson Center to discuss key takeaways from the 2016 Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen and offer insights on future directions of the health and rights agenda for women and girls. The dialogue, “After Copenhagen, What Next for Women and Girls?” was part of the Maternal Health Task Force’s Advancing Policy Dialogue on Maternal Health Series in partnership with UNFPA and the Wilson Center. Though each panelist attended the conference with a unique background and different perspective, the dialogue revealed several steps that will help advance the reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health agenda…read more
Lessons Learned from Implementing the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist
Posted onTo maintain momentum for maternal newborn health, we must share our successes and failures in improving health outcomes for moms and babies. This month, scientists at Ariadne Labs, a collaboration between Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, hosted a webinar to present their partner’s experience using the World Health Organization (WHO) Safe Childbirth Checklist in Namibia. Participants discussed the development of the checklist, an implementation project, and key takeaways on using the checklist in other settings…read more
Addressing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Is Vital to Zika Response
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Now affecting over a million people in 20 countries, the Zika epidemic in the Latin America and Caribbean region has engendered a complex scenario that must go beyond addressing prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Due to the virus’ potential effects on newborns and developing fetuses, ranging from microcephaly to other congenital neurological abnormalities, sexual and reproductive health and rights are inseparable elements of the Zika response. A new commentary, co-authored by Ana Langer, Director of the Maternal Health Task Force, Jacquelyn Caglia, Associate Director, and Clara Menéndez, Director of the Maternal, Child and Reproductive Health Initiative at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, presents the Zika outbreak as a pivotal period that could either magnify the immense burden faced by many women, families, and children in these regions or serve as an opportunity to demand stronger health systems that deliver comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care…read more
Tracking Perioperative Mortality: Lessons Learned From the Maternal Mortality Ratio
Posted onThe Lancet Commission on Global Surgery currently estimates that 5 billion people lack safe and affordable surgical and anesthesia care when needed. To assess this inequity, the Commission seeks to refine the perioperative mortality ratio (POMR), an indicator that measures the number of all-cause deaths before discharge in patients who have undergone a surgical procedure. A recent commentary published in The Lancet Global Health, co-authored by Ana Langer, Director of the Women and Health Initiative at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Maternal Health Task Force, explores what policymakers who are working on improving the POMR can learn from the established maternal mortality ratio…read more
International Day of Action For Women’s Health: Ensuring Respectful Maternity Care
Posted onAs we celebrate International Day of Action for Women’s Health on 28 May, we reflect on the physical, emotional and psychosocial dimensions of women’s health as well as the reasons to support girls’ and women’s health throughout the lifecycle. With Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 calling for an end to all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere, the elimination of all violence against women and girls and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights by 2030, now is the time to draw attention to the many elements of and impediments to women’s health and rights, including obstetric violence, an often underrecognized and overlooked threat to women’s rights to respectful maternity care…read more
International Day to End Obstetric Fistula: Ending Fistula Within a Generation
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In honor of today, International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, we’ve compiled resources related to obstetric fistula, a serious and tragic health condition that impacts the lives of women and families around the world. The maternal health community can support this year’s theme of ending fistula within a generation by promoting universal access to high quality emergency obstetric care, treatment, and social support…read more
New Videos on WHO Guidelines for Newborn Care Now Available
Posted onWith the Sustainable Development Goals calling for a global reduction in neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births by 2030, we must make every effort to share lessons, practices, and resources related to newborn health. To this end, Global Health Media recently released a set of seven short videos that teach health workers how to follow new and innovative WHO guidelines for ill newborns. Watch, download, and share the newborn care videos! …read more
Midwives Can Significantly Reduce Maternal Mortality, But They Need Support
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Effectively scaling up midwifery care will help reduce maternal mortality and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, but midwives need the support of the enabling environment. In honor of International Day of the Midwife, we sat down with Rima Jolivet, our Maternal Health Technical Director, for insight into her experience as a certified nurse-midwife as well as her thoughts on the current and future landscape of midwifery……read more
After Mexico City and Before Copenhagen: Keeping Our Promise to Mothers and Newborns
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On April 13, in partnership with UNFPA and the Wilson Center, the Maternal Health Task Force co-hosted a policy dialogue to review priorities, evaluate progress, and reignite efforts in the maternal newborn health field. The discussion served as a reflection of the lessons learned at the Global Maternal Newborn Health Conference held in Mexico City last October and preparation for achieving the maternal newborn health agenda through an advocacy lens at Women Deliver…read more