Rethinking Business As Usual: Leveraging the Private Sector to Strengthen Maternal Health
Posted onWhat Explains the United States’ Dismal Maternal Mortality Rates?
Posted onPreviewing the Next Generation of Global Maternal and Newborn Health Programs in Mexico City
Posted onThe Global Maternal Newborn Health Conference, held in Mexico City from October 18-21, will provide a forum to identify, understand, and respond to the most urgent health needs of mothers and newborns. The hope is that it will accelerate momentum for maternal and newborn health in the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals and put us on a track to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths. One of the best ways to ensure progressive change is to showcase innovative and effective solutions and then consider how to replicate and expand those successes. For maternal and newborn health programs, this applies to improvements in quality, integration, and equity. I’m confident we’ll hear about many new and innovative approaches in Mexico City… read more
Pakistan’s Maternal and Child Health Problems “Huge Stumbling Block” to Development, Long-Term Security
Posted onWHO Misoprostol Approval Means Lifesaving Treatment for Women in Low-resource Settings
Posted onA young woman arrived at a health clinic in Sierra Leone with heavy bleeding. She was suffering from postpartum hemorrhage (PPH)—or excessive bleeding after birth—the most common cause of death for women after delivery. The midwife at the clinic acted quickly, administering oxytocin, a uterotonic that helps the uterus contract to stop the bleeding. However, the facility was lacking the refrigeration needed to properly store the drug, which was also two years out of date. As a result, the oxytocin had no effect, and the woman died two hours later… read more
In Kenya, Encouraging Breastfeeding at the Community Level is Saving Lives
Posted onWhat helps save the lives of about 800,000 babies every year and doesn’t cost a dime? Breastfeeding. Of all preventive health interventions, breastfeeding—done within the first hour of life, exclusively for the first six months, and until age two—has the greatest potential impact on child survival, with the ability to avert 13% of deaths in children under five in the developing world (Lancet 2013). In Kenya, national rates of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life have increased dramatically — from 32% in 2008/09 to 61% in 2014… read more
Leadership in Maternal and Newborn Health: Dr. Shershah Syed
Posted on“[My patient] had waited 41 years for treatment. It took me just 20 minutes and 1 stitch to give back her dignity,” said Shershah Syed. Shershah, a leading obstetrician-gynaecologist in Pakistan, has long been a visionary campaigner for women’s rights, girl’s education and safe motherhood. By offering free life-saving operations in rural, slum area clinics, Shershah has improved the lives of thousands of rural women too poor to pay for treatment… read more
Lauri Romanzi on Rethinking Maternal Morbidity Care in a Historical Context
Posted onIn May 1855, Dr. James Marion Sims opened the first obstetric fistula hospital in New York City. Just 40 years later, it closed, reflecting a sharp decline in maternal morbidity rates in the United States and other Western countries. The Waldorf Astoria Hotel now stands on the site of the former hospital. “We know that we have eradicated obstetric fistula in high income countries; it happened at the turn of the 20th century,” says Dr. Lauri Romanzi, project director of Fistula Care Plus, in this week’s podcast. That timing is crucial, says Romanzi, because there is a narrative that argues certain social determinants must be changed to eradicate fistula in developing countries today, such as forced marriage, teen pregnancy, women’s education and suffrage, antenatal care, and gender-based violence… read more