Asking different questions: Research priorities to improve the quality of care for every woman, every child
Posted onThe Lancet Maternal Health Series: “Beyond Too Little, Too Late and Too Much, Too Soon”
Posted onThe Lancet Maternal Health Series published last month contains six papers highlighting the importance of improving access to high quality maternal health care for all women across the globe. In paper 2, “Beyond too little, too late and too much, too soon: A pathway towards evidence-based, respectful maternity care worldwide,” Miller and colleagues examine two extremes in global obstetric care: Too little, too late and too much, too soon…read more
Strengthening accountability for improved maternal and newborn health: A mapping of studies in sub-Saharan Africa
Posted on“Too Far to Walk”: 20 Years Later, Distance Remains a Barrier to Maternal Health
Posted onIn 1994, Thaddeus and Maine published their groundbreaking article, “Too Far to Walk: Maternal Mortality in Context.” More than 20 years later, distance remains a major barrier to maternity care for many women around the world. Where a woman lives should not dictate whether she can access high quality maternity care. The recommendations from Thaddeus and Maine deserve to be reexamined in our current context. Efforts to increase facility-based delivery must seriously consider the daily lives of women, including the many obstacles they encounter on the way to the health facility…read more
Ensuring Quality in Private Maternity Care
Posted onOne of the most challenging areas of maternal health is measuring, improving and assuring quality of care. Measuring the quality of maternal health care can be particularly difficult, especially surrounding labor and delivery. Maternal mortality and morbidity outcomes can be misleading indicators of quality, and data on the content of care is extremely limited. For private maternity care providers, investing in continuous quality measurement and improvement can be a real hurdle. Particularly for small, independent providers, time is money and taking on complex, continuous quality improvement processes is unrealistic. However, our experience working with private providers demonstrates that they are eager to invest in quality improvement measures…read more
Global Leaders in Maternal and Newborn Health: Prof. Marleen Temmerman (Kenya)
Posted onProfessor Marleen Temmerman is Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Aga Khan University (AKU) Hospital Nairobi and Director of the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health AKU – East Africa. Prior to that, she was the Director of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research (RHR) at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva. She is the founding director of the International Centre of Reproductive Health (ICRH) at Ghent University with sister organizations in Kenya and Mozambique and a large global collaborative network. In 2007, Professor Temmerman was elected as a Senator in the Belgian Parliament where she was member of the Commission on Social Affairs and Chair of the Commission on Foreign Affairs. She is one of the penholders of the UN Global Strategy for Women’s, Children and Adolescents’ Health 2016-2030 and also serves as Senior WHO Advisor in Women, Adolescent and Child Health. She is a member of the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Post-2015 World and a Senior Fellow in the Institute for Global Health Diplomacy in Geneva…read more