WASHINGTON, Oct. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Agency for International Development and Kimberly-Clark Corporation, a global manufacturer of health and hygiene products, announced today that they will work together to improve maternal and child health in the Andean region, starting in Colombia and Ecuador.
The new partnership will link the U.S. Government's Global Health and Feed the Future initiatives to Kimberly-Clark's existing programs, which already reach thousands of new and expecting mothers in poor communities. Read more...
Updates
USAID Partners With Kimberly-Clark to Help Babies and Moms in Andean Nations
October 20th, 2011
Andean Nations Unite to Prevent Teen Pregnancy
September 30th, 2011
This past week, a diverse group of stakeholders from six countries- Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Columbia and Venezuela- joined together to celebrate Andean Week for Teen Pregnancy Prevention. This event brings together youth organizations and government bodies in collaboration with partners from the Andean Plan to Prevent Teen Pregnancy (PLANEA) in a series of activities and interactive events. With the aim of reaching communities and policy-makers, these activities are designed to raise awareness about the issue of teen pregnancy and what can be done to scale-up prevention efforts. Read more...
Additional Contraceptive Services Needed to Reduce Unsafe Abortions in Colombia
September 9th, 2011
A new report released by the Guttmacher Institute and Fundación Oriéntame assesses that the number of induced abortions in Colombia rose between 1989 and 2008. Despite this, the country’s abortion rate rose only minimally; indicating a rise in the number of reproductive aged women as the reason for growth. Unintended Pregnancy and Induced Abortion in Colombia: Causes and Consequences, points to the criminal nature of abortions by the Colombian government as the major source of complications and health risks to women. Read more...
Corporate Buzz: Coffee Partnership Works to Prevent Cervical Cancer
September 1st, 2011
By: Kristin Rosella, Program Associate for Strategic Partnerships for Women Deliver
Thousands of women in low-resource areas of Mexico, Nicaragua, and Tanzania are now getting life-saving cervical cancer screenings through a unique public-private partnership between Grounds for Health, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization, and coffee-farming cooperatives. Read more...
Historic U.N. Ruling Finds Brazil Violates Woman’s Human Rights in Maternal Death Case
August 18th, 2011
In the first-ever maternal death case to be decided by an international human rights body, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women established that governments have a human rights obligation to guarantee that all women in their countries—regardless of income or racial background—have access to timely, non-discriminatory, and appropriate maternal health services. Read more…
Celebrate Solutions: Haitian Midwives Use Next-Generation Birth Kit to Prevent Postpartum Hemorrhage
June 6th, 2011
By: Rati Bishnoi, Special Projects Intern at Women Deliver
The most recent graduates from Midwives for Haiti are some of the first health professionals on the island nation to use an obstetric kit specially equipped to prevent death from excessive bleeding after childbirth. Read more...
Celebrate Solutions: Cultivating a New Cohort of Midwives in Rural Haiti, Midwives for Haiti
April 4th, 2011
By: Madeline Taskier, Partnership Coordinator at Women Deliver
In the Caribbean island nation of Haiti, almost 1 in 93 women die during pregnancy or childbirth, making it the country with the highest maternal mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere. Compared to its neighbor, the Dominican Republic, in which 99 percent of women deliver with the help of a skilled birth attendant (SBA), only 26 percent of Haitian women deliver with a SBA. After the disastrous earthquake in Port au Prince last year, the number of women able to give birth in facilities with SBAs has decreased due to poor transportation access and a significant ‘brain drain’ of Haitian midwives. Read more...
Celebrate Solutions: Driven to Deliver Maternal Care to Bolivia’s Hardest-to-Reach Women
February 28th, 2011
By: Rati Bishnoi, Special Projects Intern
Nearly a decade after being launched, a program that sends mobile health units down some of Bolivia’s most remote roads is continuing to deliver much-needed basic reproductive and maternal health care to thousands of indigenous girls and women. Because most indigenous girls and women are unable to travel to cities to receive the reproductive care they need, the International Planned Parenthood Federation—Western Hemisphere and Bolivia-based Center for Investigative and Educational Services’ (CIES) Sexual and Reproductive Health Clinic use these mobile health units to bring maternal health care to women who are the hardest to reach. Read more...
Celebrate Solutions: Empowering Young Women in Guatemala
January 17th, 2011
By: Mariko Rasmussen, Communications Specialist at Women Deliver
In Guatemala, young indigenous girls living in rural areas often do not have a chance to go to school. Instead, they help their families, living in social isolation and sometimes chronic poverty. They often marry young and have many children – the country’s fertility rates are among the highest in Latin America, with each woman bearing an average of 4.4 children over her lifetime. These indigenous girls have limited access to basic services such as water, sanitation, passable roads, and health care. To help break the cycle and enable these girls to reach their full potential, the Population Council, in collaboration with other partners, launched a program called Abriendo Oportunidades (Creating Opportunities) in 2004. Read more...
New Colombian Law Ensures Free Access to Contraceptives
December 13th, 2010
The Colombian Government recently passed a law which guarantees access to free contraceptives, including surgical procedures such as vasectomy and tubal ligation. The law was proposed several years ago, but received the push into legislation from new President Juan Manuel Santos. Read more...
Celebrate Solutions: Improving Emergency Obstetric Care in Peru
November 29th, 2010
By: Madeline Taskier, Partnership Coordinator at Women Deliver
Ayacucho is a mountainous and isolated region in the southeast corner of Peru. While the country has reduced its maternal mortality rate by 61% since 1990, rural women face serious barriers to quality emergency obstetric care (EmOC). Ayacucho is ranked 20th among the 24 Peruvian regions for health indicators with only 3.7 OBGYNs working per 10,000 women of reproductive age. In response to these challenges, CARE and the Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program collaborated to improve EmOC for 48,000 rural women in the Ayacucho region. Read more...
New Reports Show Regional Disparities Exist for Mexican Women
September 7th, 2010
Two new studies released by the Guttmacher Institute showcase new research on maternal health issues in Mexico. The reports, “Addressing Adolescent Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs in Mexico: Challenges and Opportunities,” and “Barriers to Safe Motherhood in Mexico,” (reports available in Spanish only) discuss sub-national data on access to sexual and reproductive health resources and maternal mortality rates. Read more...
The Maternal Health Task Force Announces New Grants
July 22nd, 2010
The Maternal Health Task Force at EngenderHealth announced today that it has awarded eight new grants supporting innovative maternal health research across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The research, which will be carried out by local organizations in developing countries, will lead to national policy recommendations for improving maternal health.
Each research project will evaluate an ongoing effort to advance maternal health in places where too many women still die from preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Examples of such projects include integrating maternal health care with HIV prevention and treatment, organizing support groups for pregnant mothers, and outfitting health workers in rural communities with cellular phones to facilitate emergency care for pregnant women. Following are summaries of the new grants...
Maternal Health in Haiti on PBS
February 2nd, 2010
The PBS newsmagazine show NOW on PBS highlighted maternal mortality in Haiti on Friday night with an interview from Ann Starrs, president of Family Care International. While Haiti's catastrophic earthquake has left lives and institutions in ruin, it has also exacerbated a longtime lethal risk in Haiti: Dying during childbirth. Challenges in transportation, education, and quality health care contribute to Haiti having the highest maternal mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere, a national crisis even before the earthquake struck.
Emergency in Haiti: Maternal Health Supplies Rushed to Disaster Areas
January 16th, 2010
Port-au-Prince, Haiti – A major earthquake centered just 10 miles from Port-au-Prince has devastated the country, killing an estimated 200,000 people. Survivors are struggling to find necessary resources, such as food, water and health supplies. The Reproductive Health Response in Conflict (RHRC) Consortium estimates that there are approximately 63,000 pregnant women in Port-au‐Prince, 7,000 of whom will deliver in the coming month. Further, 15% (9,450 women) of all pregnant women will also require care for life threatening pregnancy complications.
Barriers to Maternal Health in Peru
July 16th, 2009
Amnesty International just uploaded this video. Watch it and then read this article on CNN.com about pregnancy and childbirth in Peru.
PBS Feature on Maternal Mortality
December 4th, 2008
Guatemala has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in Latin America, where death during childbirth is 20 times more likely than in the developed world. The majority of these deaths are preventable, with access to sufficient medical care — a challenge for many Guatemalans, particularly those in remote areas.