Updates

By: Ife Smith, Women Deliver 100 Young Leader from Trinidad and Tobago

This blog is part of a series, edited by Women Deliver, in partnership with Impatient Optimists, on youth perspectives to celebrate World Contraception Day. Share your thoughts in comments and join the conversation at #WCD2012. For more stories and to get involved further visit No Controversy.

In Trinidad and Tobago, the rates of teenage pregnancy and HIV prevalence are quite high. The adolescent birth rate in Trinidad and Tobago is 33 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19, and there were 15,000 people living with HIV in 2009. Statistics show that at the end of 2009, an estimated 240,000 people were living with HIV in the Caribbean.

By: Mariko Rasmussen, Communications Specialist at Women Deliver

While my previous posts have focused on ‘solutions’ in the Global South, today we’re focusing on maternal health in the United States where it is getting more dangerous to be a pregnant woman. In 2007, the United States ranked 41 out of 171 countries for lifetime risk of death from pregnancy related causes. That means 40 countries had better maternal health outcomes than the U.S. In 2008, the United States dropped to 50, behind countries including: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Qatar, and Puerto Rico. Today, in the U.S., 1 in 2,100 women will die in pregnancy and childbirth. Read more...

Health Care in its Social Context from SternerTurner Media on Vimeo.

By Madeline Taskier, Partnership Coordinator at Women Deliver

Yesterday, a line wrapped around the Dirksen Senate Office hallway as women’s groups, members of the press, and lobbyists gathered to attend the CEDAW ratification hearing hosted by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) presided over the hearing as six witnesses took the podium and argued for the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).