Measuring Maternal Health in a Post-MDG World
Posted onGLOW 2015 Conference Gives New Evidence for Putting Girls and Women at the Heart of the New Global Development Goals
Posted onOn March 4th 2015, the annual GLOW conference was held at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) in London, jointly hosted by the MARCH Centre of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Institute for Women’s Health of University College London. Global Women’s Research society (GLOW) was created in 2012 to bring together UK-based academics to better advance research and also leadership development. The GLOW 2015 theme was “Reaching Every Women, Every Newborn: the post-2015 research agenda” and the first keynotes looked back to learn, and then looked forward… read more
How to Use Mobile Technology to Integrate Maternal and Newborn Health Care
Posted onWhen the idea of MAMA was in its infancy it was always about maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), because we knew that they go hand in hand. If a woman’s pregnancy isn’t healthy then chances are her baby, and ultimately her growing child, won’t be either. That’s why we worked with BabyCenter and other MNCH experts to create a set of core health messages that adhere to global best practices, designing them to be sent two to three times a week to cover a woman’s pregnancy all the way through her child’s third year of life… read more
On the Far Reaching Consequences of Maternal Mortality
Posted onWorldwide, about 290,000 women die each year from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. From a numerical perspective, this figure appears to denote a situation less urgent than that suggested by the figures for other global health threats, such as malaria (630,000) and HIV (1.5 million). However, in the developing world—where 90 percent of maternal deaths take place—maternal mortality has dramatic implications for child survival and has a profound effect on the well-being and sustainability of the larger community… read more
As Humanitarian Crises Multiply, Maternal Health and Safety of Women Becoming a Focus
Posted onAccessing maternal health care is already a challenge in many countries, and when conflict erupts or a disaster strikes, it can get even worse, leaving millions of women on their own while at their most vulnerable, said Ugochi Daniels, chief of humanitarian response for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Women and girls also become more vulnerable to violence during times of crisis, she said, by virtue of nothing but their gender. Daniels and other experts discussed efforts by humanitarian agencies to better address maternal health and gender-based violence in crisis settings at the Wilson Center on November 20, supported by the Maternal Health Task Force and UNFPA… read more
Emerging Priorities for Maternal Health in Nigeria: Surveying the Field
Posted onA Final Update to the MHTF & PLOS Maternal Health Collection & Reflecting on Our 3 Year Collaboration
Posted onHow to Avoid Predatory Journals: A Five Point Plan
Posted onIncreasingly, I’m asked to advise and assist with the problem of predatory journals. While it’s probably only an annoying nuisance to many in the developed world, the increasing number of spam emails inviting articles and conference participation is beginning to feel like a potentially serious problem for developing world scientists and institutions. This demands action, as Richard Smith and I argue in a recent editorial in The BMJ. I recommend a five point plan for researchers to avoid predatory journals, which involves “doing your homework” to check the credibility of a journal or publisher, and always being sceptical of unknown journals. To distinguish legitimate from predatory journals, here are some useful sources of information—none of which are adequate on their own… read more