By: GE Africa
Recently, GE Healthcare, in partnership with the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania, commenced the first-of-its-kind training of 14 Tanzanian Healthcare professionals at the Kisarawe District Hospital on GE's Vscan and Venue 40 ultrasound products.
The training is coming after over a year of designing the "Enhancing Training and Appropriate Technologies for Mothers and Babies in Africa" study prepared to assess the feasibility of technology intervention for enhancing antenatal care in resource poor settings. Read more...
Every Woman Every Child, spearheaded by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, works with leaders from governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector and civil society to mobilize and intensify global action to improve the health of women and children around the world.
Of the 287,000 maternal deaths that occur every year, 
Nigeria’s maternal deaths account for 
Although many maternal and newborn deaths in developing countries are preventable, they still occur at alarmingly high rates. Whereas in developed countries, the maternal mortality rate is estimated to be 16 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, developing countries see maternal mortality rates 
In just two months, world leaders 
Affordable, life-saving medicines and health supplies with the potential to save millions of lives are not reaching the children and women who most need them. To help change this, members of the United Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children will today review and finalize recommendations to help increase access, reduce costs, and increase demand for 13 products. 
World Pulse, a non-profit global communications network, is sharing a powerful new series called Laboring for Change. As part of the series, they share five stories of five women from different countries who are calling for increased attention and equality in maternal health and reproductive rights. As World Pulse explains, in the United States, advocates for maternal health and reproductive rights have seen a huge wave of recent legislation prohibiting health services, comprehensive sexual education, access to contraception, and abortion. 
If you brave the helter-skelter road out of the capital city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh—where rickshaws, motorcycles, and oversize trucks compete with cows for two narrow lanes—then turn onto the dirt road between the rice fields, you will find something remarkable in the quiet village of Devpuri. Despite India’s dire maternal and newborn health record (each year, 78,000 women die giving birth and a million babies don’t survive their first month), mothers and newborns are surviving. 
I am one of those unfortunate Hindu women whose hard lot is to suffer the unnameable miseries entailed by the custom of early marriage. This wicked practice of child marriage has destroyed the happiness of my life. It comes between me and the things which I prize above all others - study and mental cultivation. Without the least fault of mine, I am doomed to seclusion; every aspiration of mine to rise above my ignorant sisters is looked down upon with suspicion and is interpreted in the most uncharitable manner..." 
I celebrated the 101st International Women's Day in the halls of the United Nations last week. I followed Twitter, and shared blogs and news stories that collectively called we women to action. When I take a step back, as I did last week, I'm reminded that the "women's rights are human rights" movement is still very much a process in many parts of the world. One thing that I have noticed through filming women around the world is that most of us girls and women are inspired by one another's stories.
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