Written By: Lucy Yeatman, Ruder Finn, UK
Make Women Matter www.makewomenmatter.org is a new campaign from Marie Stopes International, which highlights the need to improve the lives of women around the world and to put an end to preventable deaths that are then result of pregnancy and childbirth.
The campaign brings you five inspirational films told through the personal experiences of women in Sierra Leone,Bangladesh, South Africa and Uganda. Each film offers a unique insight into the life and death challenges faced by girls and women in poorer countries. The Make Women Matter films show that through simple interventions women can take control of their health, and that with sustained political support Millennium Development Goal number 5 can be achieved.
The second film in the series, Bwindi’s Babies, launched today, and follows the story of Elizabeth, who lives in one of the remotest parts of Uganda on the border with Congo and Rwanda. She is the Head of Reproductive Health at Bwindi Community Hospital. Women travel for hours to get here to have their babies safely. The film witnesses the arrival of a truck one evening, when a women steps out suffering with complications a month before her baby is due – watch the film and see if Elisabeth and the Bwindi team save her and her child. You can watch, download and embed Bwindi’s Babies by visiting www.makewomenmatter.org
Watch it on Youtube.com here:
Healthy skepticism needed regarding maternal mortality rates
Monday, September 27th, 2010 by Raji MohanamThe MHTF is soliciting reactions from the maternal health community to the newly released UN MMR data. Our hope is that, together, these comments will serve as a springboard for discussion and provide momentum towards MDG5.
Written by: Sarah Becklake, Intern Development Officer, WINGS
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently published a report entitled “Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2008” (2010). After assessing global maternal mortality rates (MMRs) over an 18 year span, the report estimates that by 2008 MMRs declined by 34%. While we at WINGS applaud the achievements that have helped reduce maternal deaths worldwide, we remain alert to the fact that MMRs are likely still much larger than estimated. For instance, while 99% of all maternal deaths take place in the developing world, as the WHO report itself notes, researchers face the most difficulties finding reliable and accurate data in developing countries. Data sets used to estimate MMRs are often incomplete and inaccurate. They include misidentification of cause of death, incongruent definitions, underreporting, for example in the case of abortions, and a lack of comparability across different countries and data sources.
The authors of the WHO report are well-aware of the data’s limitations and make considerable efforts to compensate for these problems. One measure undertaken was to divide countries into A, B or C categories depending on the availability and quality of data. This, however, must be regarded with caution. Guatemala was categorized as an A country, suggesting that it has a complete civil registration system allowing for good attribution of cause of death. However, as WINGS is well-aware, after working in Guatemala on reproductive health issues for almost 10 years, governmental reporting on maternal deaths in Guatemala is far from reliable. Reports on Guatemala’s MMRs differ widely depending on which source one looks at. For example, a UNICEF report published in 2009 estimates that the MMR from 2003-2008 in Guatemala was 130 per 100,000. The report, however, goes on to adjust that figure to 290 per 100,000 women to account for the lack of government reporting (or misreporting). This is in stark contrast to the recent figures in the WHO report, which suggest that in 2008 Guatemala’s MMR for every 100,000 live births was only 110. The report further notes that Guatemala’s MMR has only decreased 1.7% a year from 1990 to 2008. While this is already far below the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of 5.5% a year, due to the report’s low estimation of Guatemala’s MMR, a 1.7% decrease might even be considered optimistic. If such different estimations exist for a country listed as having a fairly high level of data, one can only imagine the discrepancies for those countries listed as lacking sufficient registration systems.
While the WHO’s estimations should be viewed cautiously, the report does a good job of highlighting the need for improved data on maternal mortality the world over. Additionally, while reporting a decrease in global maternal mortality, the report does its best to argue against complacency. As noted, much more work is needed before the MDG of reducing the global MMR by 75% can be achieved. WINGS congratulates all those that are diligently working towards this goal.
Click here for more information on WINGS-”Strengthening Guatemalan families through reproductive health”
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Tags: categorization of countries, cause of death, cautious optimism, civil registration system, data sets, discrepancies, Guatemala, incomplete data, MDG5, misidentification, MMR, MMR Report, qualilty of data, registration systems, reliable data, Sarah Becklake, skepticism, UN estimates, underreporting, UNICEF, WHO, WINGS
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