*Due to my current position in rural India and my limited internet access, I am not posting/updating regularly. I hope to get back to posting regularly later this year!*
“Many people consider the day their child was born the happiest day in their life. In the world’s wealthier countries, that is. In poorer countries, the day a child is born is all too often the day the mother dies.”
- http://www.endpoverty2015.org
Scope of the Problem
According to an April 2010 publication out of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, an estimated 343,000 women died around the world from complications related to pregnancy in 2008. That is 940 a day.
The Promise
In the year 2000, 189 world leaders convened at the United Nations Millennium Summit to make a promise. They signed the Millennium Declaration and promised to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. They agreed to eight goals with measurable indicators and specific deadlines to improve the lives of the world’s poorest and most marginalized populations.
Millennium Development Goal 5
Reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio
Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health services
This Blog
In the name of the nearly 940 women who die each day around the world from pregnancy complications, Maternal Mortality Daily tracks news and blogs addressing global maternal mortality by providing summaries and excerpts–and linking to a variety of news sources, blogs and websites of organizations working in maternal health. Consider Maternal Mortality Daily the one-stop-shop for up-to-date info on progress toward Millennium Development Goal 5 and opportunities in the maternal health field–on a daily basis.
About Me
I am Kate Mitchell. I completed my MPH in International Health at Boston University. For my ‘culminating experience’ at BU, I put together a 25 minute multimedia piece on the issue of maternal mortality in the Dominican Republic. Until very recently, I was working on the Knowledge Management team of the Maternal Health Task Force at EngenderHealth. At the end of August, I moved to India to work on the MANSI (Maternal and Newborn Survival Initiative) project as a William J. Clinton Fellow.
I look forward to your help and participation on this blog. I do my best to keep the site up to date with useful and interesting info–but I certainly don’t capture everything! That is where you come in! Let me know what you are working on. Use this blog as a platform to share information on new programs and/or research you are working on. Let me know if you hear about any maternal health news or opportunities that should be posted. I am counting on you to help me keep the site up to date and as useful as possible!
Best,
Kate Mitchell
Again, good job Kate! I will for sure visit this blog often and help in any way I can.
Kate — fabulous. Your site is a great resource and inspiration in my own MCH work. (and has prompted my multiple purchases of Half the Sky as holiday gifts! brilliant way to spread the word.) Cheers –
Hi Kristin- Thanks for your comment. I am curious to know more about how your MCH work is going. I would love to hear more about it. Let me know if you would like to be a guest blogger on Maternal Mortality Daily at some point. I would love that!
Kate
Let me know if you would be interested in an embargo copy of IRIN’s Afghan “Veil of Tears” book for review. Ben Parker, IRIN.
Hi Ben. I am very interested in reviewing a copy of “Veil of Tears.” Let’s discuss over email. katemitch@gmail.com
Thanks!
Kate
Hi Kate,
I love your blog, it’s so current and full of relevant information. I am doing my senior honors thesis at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and am less than a semester from graduating with a degree in public health. I am currently conducting research on Sierra Leone’s struggle to improve maternal and child health since the end of the war in 2002. I would love to chat with you sometime about your work. As a side note, I noticed that you are a knowledge management intern at EngenderHealth. I am a knowledge management intern at MEASURE Evaluation! My email address is sakkari@email.unc.edu.
Simone
Hi Simone,
Thanks so much for your comment. And congrats on your Public Health degree! Your research in Sierra Leone sounds very interesting. I have a good friend who spent several months in Sierra Leone working with former child soldiers and doing some research. It might be interesting for you two to connect. Let me know if you would like to chat with her and I can give you her contact info. Also, you can email me at katemitch@gmail.com. I would love to hear more about your work too!
Best wishes,
Kate
PS. If you would like to write a guest blog post on Maternal Mortality Daily about maternal health in Sierra Leone—or some other topic—let me know!
Kate,
We’ve been following your blog for some time now. You’ve mentioned EngenderHealth in the past. I am trying to compile data on the traffic/readership/hits for the websites that have featured EngenderHealth in some way. Do you have these figures? Is it possible for you to share them?
Thanks!
Hi Carly,
I just sent you an email with some figures. Please let me know if you need more specific info or have any other questions.
Best wishes,
Kate
Hi, I am a Nurse Midwife working on a PhD in Public Health, plan a project in Bolivia. Would love to email and share info/projects. and possiblility of a documentary as the project develops, please email if interested
Hi Anne! Thanks for your comment. Your work sounds fascinating! I would love to hear more about it. Please email me at katemitch@gmail.com. I look forward to connecting with you!
I have been thinking about pursuing a Nurse Midwife degree at some point—so I would love to pick your brain about that too!
Best wishes,
Kate
Thank you so much for your blog. I’m directing a project through the United Methodist Church called “Healthy Families, Healthy Planet” to improve maternal health and save lives by investing in international family planning. Thank you for helping all of us stay informed and for raising the visibility of maternal mortality.
Hi Katey,
Thanks for your comment. I am following you on Twitter now–and you post such interesting stuff! Thanks. I would love to hear more about your work. Keep me posted about it–and we could post something on the blog about it. My email is katemitch@gmail.com.
Keep in touch!
Kate
I just stumbled across your blog and I love it! I am a student midwife being trained to work in developing countries. I will definitely add you to my blogroll. Would you mind if i cross-posted some of your articles sometimes to get the word out about global maternal health? I will always include a link to your blog from the posts.
Keep up the awesome work!!
peace,
Beth
Hi Beth,
I am so glad that you like the blog. And thank you for your comment. Please go ahead and cross-post/link to anything on the blog. What is the name of your blog? I would love to check it out. Also, let me know if you are aware of any interesting MH work going on that I am not linking to—but should be.
If you get a chance, send me an email and tell me more about your studies! Where are you based?
I would like to do a nurse midwife degree at some point:)
Thanks!
Best wishes,
Kate
hi kate,
good work and God bless u, am a post graduate population and health student and doing a research on the experiences of obstetric fistula patients in Ghana, i would like to know if u could send me some literature on obstetric fistulas. thanks
Hi Lailah,
Thanks for your comment. Your research sounds very interesting!
Re: literature on obstetric fistula, go to http://www.maternalhealthtaskforce.org and click on library under the Discover menu. There are hundreds of documents from over 20 organizations—you can search these documents for fistula.
You can also use the amba customized search engine to search many of the leading sources of maternal health literature. Access this by clicking on “Search” from the Maternal Health Task Force home page.
Hope that helps! Let me know if you don’t find what you are looking for—and I’ll put you in touch with someone who might be able to answer more specific questions.
Keep in touch and keep me posted on your research!
Best wishes,
Kate
Great site! Thanks for keeping the dangers that women face in the world in the forefront of people’s minds!
Michelle Johnson
President
Afghanistan Midwifery Project
Hi Michelle!
Thanks so much for your comment. I checked out your organizations website and it looks like you are up to some very interesting work. Please keep me posted on your work–I would love to share projects, events, etc. on my blog.
Take care!
Kate
Great Blog! Have stumbled on it a few times now, and am constantly pleased at what I find.
Maternal and newborn child health are incredibly important, and it’s nice to know that there are people dedicated to the cause.
With the current and upcoming G8 meetings, what needs to happen is a concrete commitment from our and the other G8 leaders of NEW funds (not funds diverted from other aid programs) towards the goal of saving the lives of approximately 500 000 mothers and 8.8 million children yearly. Among other initiatives, it is incredibly important that a portion of funds go to the training and deploying of community health workers; individuals trained to be the first point of contact for women and children in need of medical support. It’s not about creating health care systems where there are none, it’s about filling the gap. For aid to work, it needs to be feasible.
For more information on what is being done and what needs to be done on our end:
visit: http://www.everyonecanada.ca
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/everyonecanada
twitter: http://twitter.com/EVERY_ONE_CAN
Hi Bruna,
Thanks so much for your comment. I am glad that you have been pleased with the blog!
You make many very important points re: the G8 meetings and the key steps that must be taken to improve maternal and child health globally.
Please keep me posted on your work with Everyone Canada/Save the Children. I’d love to post info on any maternal health related initiatives you are working on.
Thanks for getting in touch!
Kate
It is heart warming that there are many people who are committed to improving the lot of women and children. It is unaccepatable that many women and children die as a result of pregnancy and child birth. We have come up with an intiative called PROMISE which stands for Promote Maternal Infant Survival Excellence. It is helping us to critically review our work, analyse our reports and come up with specific activities and strategies that help us to improve on our service delivery to the clients who come to our health facilities. We believe that very soon we shall be able to evaluate the impact on maternal and infant survival and share the findings with all stakeholders. We see the community to be key in the implementation of interventions in reducing maternal and newborn deaths.
Hi Kate.Thanks for the work you are doing,am public health specialist . I have a proposal concern maternal mortality as an interventional study but aia dont have fund can you help me to fulfil my ambitious.I’m in remote Tanzania where more wome die due to pregnacy complication to a mortality rate of 1418/100000 live birth can you imagine?
Regard Abdallah AM,MPH