A woman holds her baby in a village in southern Niger, where progress in women's access to family planning is being made. Our failure to give women in certain parts of the world the ability to decide the timing and number of their children is deeply damaging — not just for the women themselves but for societies, too. Lifting the obstacles is not something that can be tackled half-heartedly. Modern family planning programs were introduced widely in the developed world decades ago. … [Read more...]
Maternal Health, Dr. Temmerman talks to Beng Poblete-Enriquez about her priorities
February 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Dr. Marleen Temmerman, head of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health Organization in Geneva, joined the agency late last year because she believes it can play a very prominent role in meeting the unmet needs of so many women in the area of reproductive health and services. Dr. Temmerman talks to Beng Poblete-Enriquez about her priorities and recalls an early experience in Kenya where a 15 year-old pregnant girl died in her arms from a ruptured … [Read more...]
Bhutanese Midwife, Thailand’s Experience: A notebook of ideas
January 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment
LOEI, Thailand — After four days of trekking from his village by foot, a two-day bus ride across Bhutan, an international flight to Bangkok and a long van ride, Sonam finally arrived at this mountainous province in northeastern Thailand. The midwife from Gelephu, a small village in eastern Bhutan, was one of more than 20 Bhutanese health professionals selected to participate in a technical training on reproductive health care services. The programme, supported by UNFPA, is part of a … [Read more...]
UGANDA: Family planning pledges need on-the-ground action
October 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
KAMPALA, October 2012 (IRIN) - Family planning advocates in Uganda have scored some major financial and policy wins this year, but experts remain concerned that inadequate political commitment and poor health services will continue to impede women’s and girls’ access to contraceptives. At a global family planning summit in July, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni announced that his government would increase its annual expenditure on family planning supplies from US$3.3million to $5million … [Read more...]
ZA’ATARI REFUGEE CAMP, Mafraq, Jordan – Clinic with female gynecologist
September 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment
ZA'ATARI REFUGEE CAMP, Mafraq, Jordan — As a way to address both health needs and cultural sensitivities, UNFPA is supporting a reproductive health clinic with a female gynecologist in the Za'atari camp for Syrian refugees who have fled to Jordan. Some 27,000 Syrian refugees are now living in the camp. Many are women who feel more at ease in seeing a female doctor, especially when dealing with reproductive health issues. Buthaina, for instance, was in her ninth month of pregnancy … [Read more...]
SOUTH SUDAN: The biggest threat to a woman’s life
July 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment
JUBA, 20 July 2012 (IRIN) - South Sudan has the worst reported maternal mortality rate in the world. “More women die in child birth, per capita, in South Sudan, than in any country in the world,” says Caroline Delany, a health specialist with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in South Sudan which is funding a raft of maternal health programmes. A 2012 report entitled Women’s Security in South Sudan: Threats in the Home by Geneva-based think-tank Small Arms Survey … [Read more...]
