Thursday, May 27th, 2010 by KateMitch
On May 24th, the Kaiser Family Foundation held a policy forum to examine the evolving role for the U.S. in improving international maternal, newborn, and child health as well as global progress toward achieving MDG4 and 5.
Speakers included Jennifer Klein, senior advisor on global women’s issues at the U.S. Department of State; Flavia Bustreo, director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health at the World Health Organization; Ana Langer, president of EngenderHealth and Advisor to the Maternal Health Task Force; Christopher J.L. Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington; and Jen Kates, vice president and director of Global Health Policy and HIV, Kaiser Family Foundation. The discussion was moderated by the Executive Vice President of the Foundation, Diane Rowland.
“At the forum, the Foundation released a report on the U.S. role in improving global maternal, newborn, and child health that provides an overview of international efforts and offers a detailed look at the U.S. government’s response to date and the heightened focus placed on these issues by the Obama Administration’s Global Health Initiative. The Foundation also issued two related fact sheets examining the U.S. role in maternal, newborn, and child health and in family planning and reproductive health.”
Click here to download the report and the factsheets—and to watch the archived video of the policy forum.
Tags: child health, Chris Murray, Christopher J L Murray, Diane Rowland, EngenderHealth, fact sheet, family planning, Flavia Bustreo, Global Health Initiative, Global Health Policy and HIV, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Jen Kates, Jennifer Klein, Kaiser Family Foundation, maternal and child health, maternal health, Maternal Health Task Force, MDG4, MDG5, MHTF, newborn health, Obama Administration, Partnership for Maternal N, policy forum, Related Links, reproductive health, U.S. Department of State, University of Washington, WHO, World Health Organization, world progress
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Thursday, May 27th, 2010 by KateMitch
The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is committed to raising awareness for the issue of global maternal mortality. On Monday, May24th, the center launched a new interactive site, Dying for Life, dedicated to international maternal mortality reporting projects. In conjunction with the launch of the new site, the Pulitzer Center and Helium also announced a Global Maternal Health Writing Contest. The goal of the contest is to increase in-depth engagement in the under-reported issue of maternal mortality.
For information on recent maternal health reporting projects in India and Mexico supported by the Pulitzer Center, click here.
Tags: Dying for Life, Global Maternal Health Writing Contest, Helium, India, journalism, maternal death, maternal health, maternal mortality, media, Mexico, Pulitzer Center, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, reporting projects, writing contest
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Thursday, May 27th, 2010 by KateMitch
An article, More Condoms, Contraceptives, Midwives, and Educated Girls Could Prevent Most Maternal Deaths―New World Bank Reproductive Action Plan, on the World Bank News and Broadcast page outlines the rationale and the details of the new plan. The plan will focus on increasing access to contraception, attendance of antenatal services, knowledge of preventive measures and interventions for complications related to pregnancy, and training of new health workers. The plan also includes boosting primary and secondary school attendance for girls.
“Bank health financing in FY10 is expected to triple to an unprecedented US $4.1 billion―a 40 percent increase over the previous year’s record― in support of stronger health systems; boosting the prevention and treatment of communicable diseases; and improving child and maternal health, hygiene, and sanitation.
Given the weak state of health systems in many countries, the Bank has been working closely with governments, aid donors and agencies, and other partners to strengthen these systems so that women gain significantly better access to quality family planning and other reproductive health services, skilled midwives at their births, emergency obstetric care, and postnatal care for mothers and newborns…”
Read the full article here.
Tags: antenatal care, antenatal services, community health workers, condoms, contraception, contraceptives, donor agencies, donors, emergency obstetric care (EmOC), family planning, female education, governments, health systems, health workers, international aid, interventions, maternal and child health, maternal death, maternal health, midwife, midwifery care, midwives, newborn health, postnatal care, pregnancy complications, prevention, reproductive health services, World Bank, World Bank Reproductive Action Plan
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Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 by Raji Mohanam
Join us for a special reception and viewing of the films from the “Living Proof Project“. The event is hosted by Save the Children and the Maternal Health Task Force and takes place on Monday, June 7th at 6:45pm at the Women Deliver Conference. Click here for more details. Come and learn more about the vital link between maternal and newborn health.
Tags: Healthy Newborn Network, Living Proof Project, MHTF, Save the Children, SNL, Women Deliver, Women Deliver Conference
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Friday, May 21st, 2010 by KateMitch
The Maternal Health Task Force is working with Population Action International (PAI) to apply the lessons learned from the reproductive health supplies movement to the maternal health field, in order to ensure that women throughout the world have access to all the reproductive and maternal health supplies they need. PAI is facilitating the inclusion and engagement of maternal health groups as active members of the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition, promoting the adoption of maternal health supplies as a priority issue of the RHSC, and promoting the adoption of the supply issue into maternal health organizations’ technical and advocacy priorities. The two critical outputs from this project will be: 1) two country case studies that highlight supplies needed for maternal and reproductive health beyond contraceptives, 2) advocacy materials, such as a fact sheet, checklist, or toolkit on maternal health supplies that can be used with policy makers and partners.
Here is a brief update from PAI on the progress of the project—with a focus on three main objectives:
Facilitating inclusion and engagement of maternal health groups in the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition. We have been actively working to encourage MH focused organizations to become members of the RHSC and are supporting several in-country stakeholders, including members of the White Ribbon Alliance from Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, to attend the annual meeting at the end of May.
Promoting the adoption of MH supplies as a priority issue of RHSC. I am pleased to report that despite a packed agenda, we were able to secure a timeslot at the RHSC specifically to discuss maternal health supplies. We are organizing a one hour panel session, at which we will release our reports on MH Supplies. Stakeholders from Bangladesh and Uganda specifically will have the opportunity to convey the issues faced in improving access to maternal health supplies, and the important links between maternal health and broader reproductive health, including family planning.
Promoting the adoption of supply issues into maternal health organizational, technical and advocacy priorities. We have been actively working with PMNCH on the priority action around commodities. Most recently, Carolyn Vogel attended a planning meeting in Geneva that focused on future activities and directions around this issue. Additionally, our forthcoming research reports on maternal health supplies in Bangladesh and Uganda will be important in illustrating the main issues around maternal health supplies. The policy recommendations and advocacy entry points section of the reports provide concrete examples of the ways in which the maternal health community can engage in the maternal health supplies issue. Dissemination of these findings will be important to the achievement of this objective. In the coming months, we will again be reaching out to the individuals and organizations who participated in our first meeting on maternal health supplies to discuss our research findings and plan additional collaborative outreach activities.
Click here for a blog post by Roy Jacobstein on his observations of the “Linking Reproductive and Maternal Health Supplies” meeting held in December at PAI.
Click here to learn about other projects supported by the Maternal Health Task Force.
Tags: advocacy, Bangladesh, Carolyn Vogel, case studies, checklist, contraceptives, fact sheet, family planning, Kenya, Linking Reproductive and Maternal Health Supplies, maternal health, maternal health supplies, Maternal Health Task Force, MHTF, PAI, policy recommendations, Population Action International, reproductive health, reproductive health supplies, Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition, RHSC, Roy Jacobstein, Rwanda, technical, toolkit, Uganda, White Ribbon Alliance
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Thursday, May 20th, 2010 by KateMitch
On June 7th, 2010, the University of Oxford will be launching ‘Global Voices for Maternal Health’, a crowd-sourcing project to give maternal health care providers around the world a direct global voice in identifying and solving the barriers to providing evidence-based maternal health care. This ground-breaking project is supported by the Maternal Health Task Force at EngenderHealth. To view other projects supported by the MHTF, click here.
Global Voices for Maternal Health will have two elements:
● an online survey (in 9 languages) of over 10,000 maternal health care providers in developing countries about the barriers preventing the implementation of safe, effective and affordable treatments for complications related to pregnancy in their settings.
● an online discussion forum for health care providers, program managers and policy makers who are seeking new and innovative solutions for overcoming barriers to providing evidence-based maternal health care.
The website will give new weight and force to the views of people who are actually delivering medical care, providing them with a stronger voice to determine where the global community’s future efforts should be focused.
Visit www.globalvoices.org.uk to find out more and take part in the project.
Please help us to spread the word about the project and reach people working on the ground. For information on how to help, please contact global.voices@obs-gyn.ox.ac.uk.
Tags: barriers, crowd-sourcing, evidence-based, Global Voices, Global Voices for Maternal Health, health care providers, innovative solutions, launch, maternal health, Maternal Health Task Force, MHTF, policy makers, pregnancy complications, program managers, survey, University of Oxford, Women Deliver
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Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 by KateMitch
EarthSky: A Clear Voice for Science has posted two podcast interviews with Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington—and principal author of the April 2010 study published in the Lancet that showed a decline in women dying in childbirth around the world.
The first podcast is 90 seconds and the second is 8 minutes.
Murray comments on his recent study and notes that, “The good news is that some countries have proven that we can make progress – countries like Egypt, or Bolivia, or China or even India.”
Click here to access the podcasts–and read the accompanying post by Hilary Andersen on EarthSky.
Tags: Bolivia, childbirth, China, Chris Murray, Christopher Murray, Earth Sky, Earth Sky: A Clear Voice for Science, Egypt, Hilary Andersen, India, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Lancet, maternal death, maternal health, maternal mortality, Podcast, The Lancet, University of Washington
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Monday, May 17th, 2010 by KateMitch
Reminder: This event will occur this Thursday, May 20th!
Please join the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Global Health Initiative, the Maternal Health Task Force, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for the fifth event of the series on Advancing Policy Dialogue on Maternal Health.
This event will feature:
Víctor Conde Altamirano, Obstetric Nets Manager, CARE Bolivia
John Koku Awoonor-Williams, East Regional Director, Ghana Health Service
Subodh Satyawadi, Chief Operating Officer, GVK Emergency Management & Research Institute of India
Patricia Bailey, Public Health Specialist, Family Health International and Columbia University.
May 20, 2010
3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
6th Floor Flom Auditorium
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Please RSVP to globalhealth@wilsoncenter.org with your name and affiliation.
Access to skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetric care are key solutions to improving maternal morality, yet functioning referral systems and poor road infrastructure delay efficient care. Increased research, funding, knowledge sharing, and coordination between private and public sectors are necessary to make transportation and referral a global health priority.
Today’s discussion will highlight the lessons and knowledge gaps identified at a Wilson Center workshop in Washington DC with 25 experts from the transportation and maternal health communities, as well as representatives from the private sector and donor community.
Víctor Conde Altamirano, obstetric nets manager, CARE-Bolivia will discuss how transportation and referral data is being incorporated into Bolivia’s health system to improve maternal health. John Koku Awoonor-Williams, east regional director, Ghana Health Service, will address the utilization and maintenance of ambulances in rural Ghana. Subodh Satyawadi, chief operating officer, GVK Emergency Management Institute will discuss the lessons learned and challenges faced through India’s “Emergency 108” call system. Strategies and recommendations identified at the Wilson Center workshop in Washington DC will be provided by Patricia Bailey, public health specialist, Family Health International.
About the Maternal Health Policy Series
The reproductive and maternal health community finds itself at a critical point, drawing increased attention and funding, but still confronting more than a half million deaths each year and a high unmet need for family planning. The Policy Dialogue series seeks to galvanize the community by focusing on important issues within the maternal health community.
The Wilson Center’s Global Health Initiative is pleased to present this series with its co-conveners, the Maternal Health Task Force and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and is grateful to USAID’s Bureau for Global Health for further technical assistance. The Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) program at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health provided valuable technical assistance to this transportation and referral meeting.
If you are interested, but unable to attend the event, please tune into the live or archived webcast at www.wilsoncenter.org. The webcast will begin approximately 10 minutes after the posted meeting time. You will need Windows Media Player to watch the webcast. To download the free player, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download.
Location: Woodrow Wilson Center at the Ronald Reagan Building: 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW (”Federal Triangle” stop on Blue/Orange Line), 6th Floor Flom Auditorium. A map to the Center is available at www.wilsoncenter.org/directions.
Note: Photo identification is required to enter the building. Please allow additional time to pass through security.
For information on previous and future events in this series, click here.
Tags: Advancing Policy Dialogue on Maternal Health, ambulances, AMDD, Averting Maternal Death and Disability, Bolivia, CARE Bolivia, Columbia University, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, Emergency 108, emergency obstetric care (EmOC), Family Health International, Ghana, Ghana Health Service, GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute of India, India, John Koku Awoonor-Williams, knowledge sharing, Maternal Health Task Force, maternal heatlh, Patricia Bailey, policy discussion, referral, research, road infrastructure, rural Ghana, skilled birth attendants, Subodh Satyawadi, technical assistance, Transportation, transportation and referral, UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund, USAID's Bureau for Global Health, Victor Conde Altamirano, Washington DC, webcast, Woodrow Wilson Center's Global Health Initiative
Posted in Announcements, Meetings, Policy | No Comments »
Podcast: Chris Murray Discusses His Recent Research that Suggests a Drop in Global Maternal Deaths
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 by KateMitchEarthSky: A Clear Voice for Science has posted two podcast interviews with Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington—and principal author of the April 2010 study published in the Lancet that showed a decline in women dying in childbirth around the world.
The first podcast is 90 seconds and the second is 8 minutes.
Murray comments on his recent study and notes that, “The good news is that some countries have proven that we can make progress – countries like Egypt, or Bolivia, or China or even India.”
Click here to access the podcasts–and read the accompanying post by Hilary Andersen on EarthSky.
[Translate]
Tags: Bolivia, childbirth, China, Chris Murray, Christopher Murray, Earth Sky, Earth Sky: A Clear Voice for Science, Egypt, Hilary Andersen, India, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Lancet, maternal death, maternal health, maternal mortality, Podcast, The Lancet, University of Washington
Posted in Commentary, News | No Comments »