Latest Maternal health Stories

Women in least developed nations are 300 times more likely to die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications, UNICEF officials said in South Africa. The State of the World's Children report said a woman living in a developing country has a 1 in 76 lifetime risk of maternal death, compared with a probability of 1 in 8,000 for women in developed countries. A child born in a developing country is almost 14 times more likely to die during the first month of life than a child born in a...

The maternal health care issues facing women in eastern Burma (also known as Myanmar) are widespread and underreported, according to surveys by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The researchers report that more than 88 percent of women had a home delivery during their last pregnancy and displaced women were more than 5 time as likely to receive no antenatal care. Human rights violations, like displacement and forced labor, were are also widespread and found...

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Campaign to End Fistula was today recognized as a model for championing collaboration between countries in the Global South, receiving an award of excellence from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The award committee of UNDP's Special Unit for South-South Cooperation highlighted the Campaign's innovative approach in the prevention and treatment of obstetric fistula and the rehabilitation of fistula survivors. UNFPA was...

Is Colorado making the grade when it comes to helping its babies get a healthy start? New information released by the March of Dimes on the sixth annual Prematurity Awareness Day suggests it is not. The state received a letter grade of D on a report card issued today by the nonprofit infant and maternal health group. To determine the grade, Colorado's premature birth rate of 12.3% was compared to the Healthy People 2010 goal of 7.6%. This is the first of what will be an annual March...

By Dickens, Bernard There is continuing historical and social ambivalence about whether human reproduction and indulgence of human sexuality are primarily private rights or public concerns. Family creation is essentially a private matter, involving the most personal, intimate motivations and occasions. However, when medical science replaced herbal medicine for the artificial regulation of fertility it was fiercely opposed for violation of alleged public values, often drawn from publicly...

Text of report in English by state-run Vietnamese news agency VNA website [Unattributed article from the "Society" page: "Vietnam likely to fulfil seven MDGs on schedule"] Hanoi (VNA) -Vietnam is on schedule to achieve between five and seven out of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations in 2000, said an official of the world's largest body. We believe in the Vietnamese Government's resolve in implementing the UN MDGs. Vietnam has made progress in the recent...

Roundup: UN warns of high risk of maternal death in Africa, S. Asia By Daniel Ooko NAIROBI, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- A new report on maternal mortality just released by UNICEF says nearly all maternal deaths occur in developing countries with over 80 percent being in sub- Saharan Africa and South Asia. The report received here on Saturday highlights the risks faced during pregnancy and childbirth by women in developing countries. The Progress for Children: A Report Card on Maternal...

Some 1.5 million school-age girls out of school in Bangladesh DHAKA, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- About 1.5 million primary-age girls in Bangladesh still remain out of school, local newspapers The Daily Star and The Independent reported Wednesday. It was disclosed at a national consultation meeting on United Nations Girls Education Initiative (UNGEI) in Bangladesh organized by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) here on Tuesday. At the meeting, speakers said the situation is worst in...

To: NATIONAL EDITORS Contact: Shannon Egan (NY), +1-212-297-4975, egan@unfpa.org, or Trygve Olfarnes (Panama City), +507-301-7362, olfarnes@unfpa.org UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., Sept. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- More than 800,000 people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in Haiti in the wake of hurricanes Fay and Gustav and tropical storm Hanna. Houses, medical facilities, main roads and bridges have been destroyed, and an estimated 100,000 people have sought refuge in temporary...

July 11th Marks the Commemoration of World Population Day under the Theme 'Family Planning, it's a Right, Let's Make it Real' The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Higher Population Council (HPC) will mark the commemoration of World Population Day on July 11th, 2008 under the theme 'Family Planning, it's a right, let's make it real' in a bid to promote and increase awareness of family planning and reproductive health as a fundamental right across the Kingdom. Dr. Thoraya Ahmed...