KENYA – "PLEASE, Don’t Forget the Girls" As the father of four daughters and as the Executive Director for UNFPA, a leading UN agency working on maternal health, it warms my heart to see that safe motherhood and women's reproductive health are finally being recognized as important development issues. Sadly, millions of women in developing countries still lack even the most basic care during pregnancy and too often have no one to assist during births. As a result, 1,000 women die every … [Read more...]
Medicines for Maternal Health, Key Data and Findings
March 25, 2012 by
Medicines for Maternal Health Key Data and Findings Download PDF English Expanding access to quality, affordable maternal health medicines is critical to making progress in reducing maternal mortality. However, significant challenges often impede such access. Chief among them is a lack of data on the needs, gaps, systems and financing for maternal health medicines. This report, prepared for the United Nations Commission on Commodities for Women and Children’s Health, … [Read more...]
UNFPA, Launch of First-Ever Global Map of Devastating Childbirth Injury
March 1, 2012 by
Launch of First-Ever Global Map of Devastating Childbirth Injury SANTA BARBARA, CA/ SAN JOSE, CA/ UNITED NATIONS, New York—The largest and most comprehensive map of available services for women living with obstetric fistula was launched today by Direct Relief International, the Fistula Foundation, and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. The release of the Global Fistula Map, a major step forward in understanding the landscape of worldwide treatment capacity for … [Read more...]
Essential Package of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services
February 9, 2012 by
Planning and Implementing an Essential Package of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services Guidance for Integrating Family Planning and STI/RTI with other Reproductive Health and Primary Health Services Author: Population Council, UNFPA No. of pages: 56 Publication date: 2011 Publisher: Population Council, UNFPA Download PDF English The goal of this guidance document is to provide a framework for developing an essential sexual and reproductive health (SRH) package. It … [Read more...]
UNFPA 2011 Maternal Health Highlights
January 10, 2012 by
MATERNAL HEALTH 2011 - HIGHLIGHTS It was a busy, successful year for UNFPA, UN Population Fund, as it continued to work in 2011 with partners to address universal access to reproductive health, including maternal health, treatment for obstetric fistula and family planning, and to improve the lives of women and young people around the world. A special emphasis was made on the important work of midwives and the crucial role they play in saving lives and bettering maternal … [Read more...]
KENYA-SOMALIA: Breaking with tradition on reproductive health
September 15, 2011 by
WOMEN'S MATERNAL HEALTH DADAAB, September 2011 (IRIN) - Most Somali women fleeing to northeastern Kenya's Dadaab in northeastern Kenya have never visited an antenatal clinic, let alone given birth in a hospital. "When I see an expectant mother or one with a small child, I ask them whether they have gone to the hospital. If they haven't, I refer them there," Miriam Ade, a community health worker in Dadaab's Ifo camp, told IRIN. "Many of these women have lived here but … [Read more...]
Arab States Share Lessons in Improving Maternal Health
July 14, 2011 by
Arab States Share Lessons in Improving Maternal Health Morocco Serves as Model in Reducing Maternal Deaths RABAT, Morocco --- While high rates of maternal mortality continue to plague some Arab States, Morocco has made remarkable improvements in maternal health. The country is among a small group of low- and middle-income nations on track to meet Millennium Development Goal 5 – to reduce by three quarters the number of women dying during pregnancy and childbirth by 2015. Morocco’s … [Read more...]
Maternal Health Thematic Fund is Taking Action!
June 18, 2011 by
Maternal Health: Reviewing Progress and Looking Ahead UNITED NATIONS, New York — Donors, representing both governments and the private sector, today joined UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin and staff to review major achievements made possible by the Maternal Health Thematic Fund in 2010. The thematic fund supports high-impact and low-cost investments in countries with the greatest burden of maternal death and injury. UNFPA launched the Maternal Health Thematic Fund in 2008 to … [Read more...]
Reproductive Rights and Sexual and Reproductive Health Framework
June 8, 2011 by
Publication Print Send by mail Making Reproductive Rights and Sexual and Reproductive Health a Reality for All Reproductive Rights and Sexual and Reproductive Health Framework Author: UNFPA No. of pages: 40 Publication date: 2011 Publisher: UNFPA Available languages: English Available formats: electronic only Download PDF UNFPA_SRH_Framework_FinalVersion.pdf Autonomy Autonomy means the right of a woman to make decisions concerning her fertility and sexuality free of … [Read more...]
Pregnancy Should Be About Life — Not Death
June 3, 2011 by
In Canada, when a woman finds out she's pregnant, death is the last thing on her mind. She knows that doctors and hospitals with resources to help with any kind of complication are just a phone call away. But for more than 500,000 women every year, pregnancy becomes a death sentence. For most of these women, there is absolutely no medical reason they should die. This is the 21st century. We have the technologies to handle emergencies during pregnancy and childbirth. The fact that so many women … [Read more...]
care2 – No Mom Should Have to Risk Her Life to Give Life
May 18, 2011 by
I can't say it better than Bacilia Vivanco, a midwife in Peru: "For us, in all Peru, and all over the world, the mother is the pillar of the home; she is the trunk of the family tree." Put simply: Mothers matter. A lot. Support better maternal health care for moms everywhere » In Peru, a mother has a 1 in 370 chance of dying in childbirth. She is 15 times more likely to die than if she lived in Canada. That's because we know how to prevent most maternal deaths, but many moms never get … [Read more...]
Top 10 Wins in 2010 for WOMEN’S HEALTH & RIGHTS ~ A Time of Celebration~
December 21, 2010 by
A Time of Celebration ..... From the halls of the United Nations to the streets of Nigeria, the International Women’s Health Coalition and our partners worldwide have made important progress this year. As we release our Top Ten Wins for Women in 2010, we hope you will join us in celebrating: Breakthrough research on a new technology to prevent new HIV infections among women--a technology that IWHC and its partners originally conceptualized more than 20 years ago A … [Read more...]
