Mothers Matter: Merlin launches report on maternal health

4 May 2009 in Childbirth Pregnancy, Global, Publication

To mark International Day of the Midwife on May 5, Merlin is launching All Mothers Matter a report outlining why, without urgent investment in health workers in fragile states, the Millennium Development Goal for maternal health will not be reached. 50 per cent of women who die in childbirth every year live in countries caught [...]

Forced abortions shake up China surrogacy industry

4 May 2009 in Abortion Contraception, Asia, Childbirth Pregnancy, Government, Health

With China’s rising affluence, increasing numbers of infertile couples have been seeking surrogate mothers to bear them babies. In recent years, officials have largely turned a blind eye to this underground womb-for-rent industry that defies the country’s strict childbirth laws. Now, there are signs the authorities are starting to crack down by forcing some surrogate [...]

Poverty makes surrogates of Indian women in Gujarat

4 May 2009 in Asia, Childbirth Pregnancy, Financial, Poverty

Shabnam had dreamed of owning a home for years, but with few prospects for her husband, she followed the lead of many poor women in her town in western India: she signed up to carry a baby for another couple. At the clinic of Nayna Patel, perhaps India’s best-known “surrogate doctor” who delivered Anand town’s [...]

Maternal health in Nepal goal way off, say experts

4 May 2009 in Asia, Childbirth Pregnancy, Health

With only six years left to achieve its Millennium Development Goals (MDG), [see: http://www.mdgmonitor.org/factsheets_00.cfm?c=NPL] Nepal, like many other Asian countries, is lagging behind and must make further efforts, say local and international health experts. A top priority is the maternal mortality ratio (MMR), which Nepal’s government hopes to reduce to 134 women per 100,000 live [...]

In Liberia, more children surviving, more women dying in childbirth

4 May 2009 in Africa, Childbirth Pregnancy, Health

The number of women dying in childbirth in Liberia has nearly doubled since the 1980s, according to a recent UN report that has policymakers calling for urgent attention to reproductive healthcare. While the report shows encouraging trends in infant and child survival, it puts maternal mortality at 994 women per 100,000 live births in 2007 [...]

High risk pregnancies on the rise in Mali

4 May 2009 in Africa, Childbirth Pregnancy

Pregnancies among girls as young as 12 and women in their early 40s are on the rise in Mali’s rural north, according to health workers, who say cultural mores and economic pressures contribute to the potentially life-threatening pregnancies, which often go untreated due to scant health services. Bana Nimaga is a midwife at the Bankass [...]

Fistulas : two-hour operation corrects decades-long affliction in Cote D’Ivoire

4 May 2009 in Africa, Childbirth Pregnancy, Health

Women ages 17 to 70 sit on vinyl mattresses, drainage bags on the floor next to their hospital beds, catheter tubes stretching from under colourful skirts. Each one has a serene, triumphant look. The women are recovering from an operation that lasted some two hours and repaired tissue damage that made their urine flow uncontrollably [...]

Can subsidised caesareans cut maternal deaths in Benin?

4 May 2009 in Africa, Childbirth Pregnancy, Funding, Government

Benin’s government is in its first week of helping women pay for caesarean operations in an effort to reduce the number of women dying during childbirth every year, estimated at 2,000 according to the government. As of 1 April, the US$200 caesarean subsidy is offered to women seeking care in more than 40 hospitals in [...]

Pregnant women at greater risk in conflict in Sri Lanka

4 May 2009 in Asia, Childbirth Pregnancy, Health, War Conflict

Thousands of pregnant women caught up in the fighting between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are in urgent need of healthcare, according to aid workers. “I was scared. I didn’t know if we were going to make it,” 23-year-old Thanusiya told IRIN. At eight months pregnant and after weeks of [...]