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Anything related to women’s health, reproductive health and child health falls into this category. It also includes policies related to women’s empowerment and access to health resources. The posts in this section are aggregated from numerous sources on the web. Please contact us with any additional sources you think should be included.
By Maternal Health Task force
According to a new study published in PLoS One by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the World Health Organization (WHO), a simple and low-cost checklist has the potential to dramatically improve practices of health workers during childbirth. From our colleagues at Harvard School of Public Health: The researchers conducted the study at a hospital in Karnataka, India. As part of the checklist-based program, local staff reviewed deficiencies in their current practices and undertook training on using the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist. The 29 items on the checklist address the major causes of maternal deaths (e.g. hemorrhage, infection, obstructed labor, and hypertensive disease), intrapartum-related stillbirths, and neonatal deaths (e.g
May 17th, 2012 | Posted in Maternal & Reproductive Health,Women & Children | Read More »
By PLoS Medicine Blog
Today’s new estimates of maternal mortality from the United Nations’ Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (MMEIG) are good news – but not good enough. All the evidence points to more than a quarter of a million of women still dying as a consequence of pregnancy and childbirth every year – that’s around one every two minutes. We know that adequate logistics and medical care can, in principle, prevent almost all of these deaths. In Scandinavia, rates are down to under 1 in 10,000 births, but for the world as a whole they remain around 20 per 10,000 births, and in some countries maternal deaths still occur in 1% of births – totally unacceptable for the 21st century. Why do we need to have estimates of these important figures?
May 17th, 2012 | Posted in Uncategorized,Women & Children | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
You read that headline right. A simple checklist-based childbirth safety program showed dramatic improvements in adherence to essential childbirth care practices at a pilot hospital in south India. The new study coordinated from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the World Health Organization, Improving Quality of Care for Maternal and Newborn Health: Prospective Pilot Study of the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist Program, was recently published in the journal PLoS ONE. The authors say that the overall adherence to essential practices was 150% better and there was an overall improvement in 28 out of the 29 measured practices after the checklist was introduced. “The results of this study are the first evidence to suggest that the success we’ve seen with checklists in other health disciplines, for example in surgery, might also be applied to prevent avoidable childbirth-related deaths in low-income countries,” said Itziar Larizgoitia, coordinator in the Patient Safety Programme for WHO.
May 17th, 2012 | Posted in Uncategorized,Women & Children | Read More »
By Maternova
Go here to read the rest: Cesarean section
May 16th, 2012 | Posted in Maternal & Reproductive Health | Read More »
By Maternal Health Task force
New global maternal mortality estimates were released today in a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Bank. The report,“Trends in maternal mortality: 1990 to 2010”, shows that the number of women dying of pregnancy and childbirth related complications has almost halved in 20 years. The estimates show that from 1990 to 2010, the annual number of maternal deaths has dropped from more than 543,000 to 287,000–and that a number of countries have already reached the MDG target of 75 per cent reduction in maternal death. Major highlights from the report: • In 2010, the global maternal mortality ratio was 210 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest maternal mortality ratio at 500 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. • In sub-Saharan Africa, a woman faces a 1 in 39 lifetime risk of dying due to pregnancy or childbirth-related complications.
May 16th, 2012 | Posted in Maternal & Reproductive Health,Women & Children | Read More »
By Maternova
See the article here: Maternal morbidity: maternal deaths are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’
May 15th, 2012 | Posted in Maternal & Reproductive Health | Read More »
By Maternal Health Task force
Harvard School of Public Health is looking for a Senior Grants Manager to provide grants management support to the Women and Health Initiative (W&HI)–including the Maternal Health Task Force. Please see below for the job description: Reporting to the Assistant Director of Finance and Grants Administration (ADF), this position will provide financial and grant management expertise and leadership within the Department of Global Health and Population (GHP) at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). As a member of the GHP finance team, the Senior Grants Manager (SGM) will oversee a diverse and challenging portfolio of non-federal and federal grants, subawards and contracts, and will be responsible for managing related non-sponsored funds as well. Within his/her portfolio, the SGM will provide financial and grants management support primarily to the Women and Health Initiative (W&HI), managing, coordinating, monitoring and evaluating multiple grants, subcontracts and service agreements (both foreign and domestic). S/he will assist the Director of the W&HI and the W&HI’s Project Management team with project budget development, financial management and compliance, and reporting.
May 15th, 2012 | Posted in Maternal & Reproductive Health,Women & Children | Read More »
By DevelopmentImpact
Enrollment in rural Afghanistan, as you might suspect, is fairly low.And, while the primary enrollment gap between boys and girls has closed in most parts of the world, it’s alive and well here (as well as in some parts of Africa).But an interesting paper by Dana Burde and Leigh Linden gives us hope.(Gated version here and earlier ungated version here) Burde and Linden are looking at the effects of a USAIDfunded, Catholic Relief Services implemented program that puts in place locally staffed village-based schools. Burde and Linden focus their work on northwest Afghanistan, where enrollment rates for children clock in at 28 percent – 35 percent for boys and 18 percent for girls. And schools are far away – only 29 percent of the population lives within 5 kilometers of a primary school. Burde and Linden work with the program to set up a randomized phase-in. This will give them a year to look at effects.
May 15th, 2012 | Posted in Women & Children | Read More »
By GHHub
HRH | Abstract | The effects of midwives’ job satisfaction on burnout, intention to quit and turnover: a longitudinal study in Senegal.
May 13th, 2012 | Posted in Maternal & Reproductive Health,Women & Children | Read More »
By Humanosphere
Earlier this week, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the latest 100 winners of $100,000 grants from its Grand Challenges Exploration program aimed at supporting high-risk, creative approaches to improving health and fighting poverty in poor countries. Celebrated for funding “wild” and “wacky” ideas, this year’s batch of Gates Grand Challenge winners included proposals … Continue reading →
May 12th, 2012 | Posted in Hub Selects,Humanosphere,Women & Children | Read More »
By GHFN
More: Delivering on delivery for Nepali mothers this Mother’s Day
May 12th, 2012 | Posted in Featured Videos,Women & Children | Read More »
By DevelopmentImpact
This post was co-authored with Espen Beer Prydz. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this post are entirely ours. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank and its affiliated organizations. The Lancet recently published a paper by Pronyk et al. [ungated version] which examines the effects of the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) during its first 3 years in 9 countries.
May 11th, 2012 | Posted in Aid & Development,Women & Children | Read More »
By Maternal Health Task force
Mother’s Day 2012 provides a good occasion to celebrate accomplishments in the field over the past year. The Maternal Health Task Force shares ten exciting developments. The State of the World’s Midwives report provided the first comprehensive analysis of midwifery services in countries where the needs are greatest. The MHTF & PLoS launched an open-access collection on quality of maternal health care. UNICEF & UNFPA launched the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities, to increase access to maternal, child, and newborn health commodities
May 11th, 2012 | Posted in Maternal & Reproductive Health,Women & Children | Read More »
By CGDev
By Amanda Glassman – Despite declines in average fertility rates worldwide, an estimated 14 to 16 million children are born to women aged 15 to 19 each year. Over half of women in sub-Saharan Africa give birth before age 20. As I’ve blogged previously, many of these births take place in the context of early marriage. Approximately half of
May 10th, 2012 | Posted in Women & Children | Read More »
