Radha’s Story: Unforeseen Consequences of Cash Payments for Institutional Deliveries

This is the third post in a series on maternal health in rural Jharkhand, India.  At 4am, Radha’s body became completely stiff. Then came the convulsions. Radha, a newly married young woman in a small village in rural Jharkhand, was pregnant with her first child and her due date was just one week away. Radha’s [...]

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Cash on Delivery? Putting JSY’s Payments in Context

This post is the second in a series on maternal health in the Seraikela block of Jharkhand, India.  Janani Suraksha Yojana, or JSY, is a conditional cash transfer program first instituted by the government of India under the National Rural Health Mission in 2005.  A 2010 review published in The Lancet in 2010 characterized JSY as [...]

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In Rwanda, Text Messages Are Improving Access to Information and Transportation for Pregnant Women

Several U.N. agencies recently collaborated on a text messaging initiative to improve communication between community health workers and pregnant women in a community in Rwanda. Local women, health workers, and hospital directors are raving about the initiative but scaling up the project throughout the country may prove challenging; only 6% of the population in Rwanda [...]

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Globe and Mail Editorial: When It Comes To Maternal Health, Let Africans Decide

An editorial published in the Globe and Mail on Monday calls on Canadians to “abandon posturing over funding abortion overseas,” and turn to a new focus for their plans to improve maternal health abroad: a new facility focused entirely on maternal and child health at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The [...]

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International Day of the Midwife: UNFPA and the International Confederation of Midwives Call on World Leaders to Address the Global Shortage of Midwives

Today, May 5th, is International Day of the Midwife—and UNFPA and the International Confederation of Midwives have released a joint statement calling on world leaders to address the shortage of 350,000 midwives around the world. Their statement explains that increased investments in training midwives are critical to reaching the most marginalized communities–who typically lack access [...]

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Amnesty International Calls on Obama to Create an Office of Maternal Health within the Department of Health and Human Services

Today’s story on Time.com, Too Many Women Dying in U.S. While Having Babies, describes a new report by Amnesty International called, Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA. www.Time.com “Amnesty International may be best known to American audiences for bringing to light horror stories overseas such as the disappearance of political activists [...]

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BBC Reports that Pregnant Women in Developing Countries Face the Same Risk of Death that Women in the UK Faced 100 Years Ago

In honor of International Women’s Day, the BBC reports on progress toward Millennium Development Goal Five. BBC “…For every 100,000 live births in developing countries, 450 women die during pregnancy or labour. The coalition, which includes White Ribbon Alliance, Amnesty International and Oxfam, says that in 1910, 355 women died per 100,000 live births in [...]

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Small Hospital on Indian Reservation Keeps Caesarean Rates Down–Teaching More Prestigious Hospitals Several Lessons

The New York Times reports that the overall Caesarean rate in Tuba city last year was 13.5%, less than half the national average of 31.8%. This article begins with the description of one woman’s experience with childbirth in a  Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation hospital—and goes on to highlight several lessons this small hospital [...]

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Pregnant Woman in Nicaragua is Denied Cancer Treatment

Doctors in Nicaragua refuse to provide Amalia, a Nicaraguan woman with a ten year old daughter, with the care that she needs to fight her cancer. Chemotherapy could save her but it might also harm or lead to the death of her baby—and doctors fear legal consequences of performing a therapeutic abortion. RH Reality Check [...]

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Gates Foundation Grants UCSF $1.15 Million for Study on Integrating Family Planning Services and HIV/AIDS Treatment

Can integrating family planning services into HIV/AIDS treatment and care increase contraceptive use and decrease unintended pregnancy among HIV-positive women? UCSF is partnering with the Kenya Medical Research Institute and Ibis Reproductive Health to find out. University of California, San Francisco “’Two-thirds of the world’s HIV-infected population lives in sub-Saharan Africa and 60 percent are [...]

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March of Dimes is Donating $100,000 to UNICEF to Meet the Urgent Needs of Pregnant Women and Babies in Haiti

March of Dimes “The March of Dimes has made a grant to UNICEF to help thousands of pregnant women, mothers and babies in Haiti imperiled by the devastating earthquake and its aftermath. ‘The March of Dimes is deeply concerned about the thousands of pregnant women and moms caring for infants in Haiti, especially extremely fragile [...]

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UNFPA Asks for Help in Meeting the Needs of an Estimated 37,000 Pregnant Women Affected by the Earthquake in Haiti

UNFPA is asking for help as they try to establish emergency obstetric services for the estimated 37,000 pregnant women affected by Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti. ReliefWeb “…To meet the urgent maternal health and other needs of women, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is seeking about $4.6 million as part of the coordinated United Nations [...]

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UNFPA Warns Pregnant Women in Haiti are at Increased Risk of Pregnancy Complications and Maternal Death

Haiti has the highest maternal mortality ratio in the western hemisphere (670 maternal deaths/100,000 live births)—and UNFPA warns that this number will likely sky-rocket following the massive earthquake on Tuesday. UN News Center “WHO is helping to collect data on the health impact of the earthquake and is also deploying a 12-member team comprising experts [...]

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