Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day is a day of remembrance for pregnancy loss and infant death, which includes but is not limited to miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS, or the death of a newborn. It is observed annually in the United States and Canada and, in recent years, in the United Kingdom and in the Australian States of Western Australia and New South Wales, in Italy on behalf of a charity named Piccoli Angeli on October 15. Contrary to the popular belief that Pregnancy and Infant Loss … [Read more...]
World Population Day 2013, celebration on July 11
July 11, 2013 by
2013 Theme: Focus is on Adolescent Pregnancy As the world population edged to 7 billion people in 2011 (up from 2.5 billion in 1950), it has had profound implications for development. A world of 7 billion is both a challenge and an opportunity with implications on sustainability, urbanization, access to health services and youth empowerment. In 1989, in its decision 89/46, the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme recommended that, in order to focus attention … [Read more...]
What Women Should know about the ‘Fourth Trimester’
July 3, 2013 by
In order to accommodate the shift that allows human women to walk upright, their bodies have undergone a gradual evolutionary change that leaves their pelvises roughly 30% smaller than those of their homo erectus ancestors. The size of infants brains and the heads that house them have, in that time, gotten larger, according to studies conducted by paleoanthropologists at the University of Indiana. The resulting shift means that, in order to walk upright, women’s bodies simply cannot … [Read more...]
Syrian Women Giving Birth in Exile
May 11, 2013 by
ZA'ATARI, Jordan — In a tent hospital bed, a Syrian woman who was four months pregnant when she fled her country's civil war cradles one of the newest residents of this dust-swept refugee camp: Her newborn son, just delivered by Caesarean. Around a dozen babies are born every day in Za'atari camp, which is home to 120,000 Syrians and counting – and there's only one, overworked Moroccan doctor performing C-sections. Still, the clinic where he operates and several other field hospitals here … [Read more...]
Surviving the First Day, Save the Children celebrates Mothers!
May 8, 2013 by
In honor of Mother's Day, Save the Children presents our 14th annual State of the World's Mothers report. READ THE REPORT HERE The first day of life is the most dangerous day of a child's life in countries rich and poor around the world, including the United States. Beloved actresses Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Connelly and Allyson Hannigan join with celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe and moms from around the world to share their first moments. Would love if you shared your baby's … [Read more...]
CONGO – Indigenous ‘pygmies’ excluded from maternal health
March 5, 2013 by
BRAZZAVILLE, March 2013 (IRIN) - Indigenous Women in the Republic of Congo, better known as 'pygmies' - a minority group threatened with extinction - are virtually excluded from reproductive health services. They mostly give birth at home and are exposed to related health risks, according to a 2012 study conducted by the Ministry of Health with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). The study, Determinants of the Use of Reproductive Health Services by Indigenous Peoples, was … [Read more...]
ZAMBIA, actions to meet the Millennium Development Goals
September 25, 2012 by
Identifying good practices that lead to greater equity in reproductive health The UN agencies known as the H4+ support priority countries that take concerted actions to meet the Millennium Development Goals on maternal and child health. UNFPA has identified Zambia as one such country. The following feature shows some of the "Good Practices" the country has undertaken to expand access to reproductive health. When Mabvuto Zulu returned to Zambia after studying medicine in Cuba, he worked … [Read more...]
United Republic of Tanzania tackles mother-to-child transmission of HIV
September 6, 2012 by
NJOMBE REGION, United Republic of Tanzania, – A group of HIV-infected mothers and their partners have formed a mothers’ support group attached to their local health clinic in Kitulo Ward, Makete District, United Republic of Tanzania. Members of the group give psychosocial support to one another and assist HIV-positive women to follow up with their medical check-ups and treatment. The group also provides information to the community about preventing mother-to-child transmission … [Read more...]
YEMEN: Women die as violence impedes antenatal care in Abyan
August 25, 2012 by
TAKE ACTION !!! ABYAN, 24 August 2012 (IRIN) - In June, after spending 11 months in a makeshift camp for people displaced by violence, 19-year-old Dawlah Muslih, then seven months pregnant, returned to her home in an area of Yemen where safety was supposed to have improved. It was a move her family would come to regret. Two months ago, the government announced that the militant group Ansar al-Sharia had been routed from the southern Abyan Governorate by a large-scale military offensive. … [Read more...]
JAKARTA, ‘highest number of pre-term births’
July 11, 2012 by
JAKARTA, July 2012 (IRIN) - Linda Rullis sold her motorcycle and borrowed money from relatives to cover neo-natal treatment for her daughter, who was born after only 24 weeks of pregnancy, barely weeks within the threshold of survival. The baby girl is now one year old and weighs 5.1kg. “I insisted on taking her home after she had been treated for four months because I couldn’t afford the treatment anymore,” Rullis, 30, told IRIN. “When she was born she weighed only 690g, but luckily she … [Read more...]
Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health
September 27, 2011 by
A Week of Progress for Women and Children NEW YORK — When a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth, a family is devastated and a community suffers an irreplaceable loss. And when her options are narrowed for lack of health, education or equity, her family, community and country suffer as well. This week, which marked the first anniversary of the UN Secretary-General's Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health, world leaders took notice and Took Action. What made this … [Read more...]
