The programme used a highly participatory approach that set out to reduce shortfalls and improve access, use, distribution and procurement of contraceptives and other reproductive health commodities, as well as to build governments' capacity to plan and manage their reproductive health commodity supply systems.

 

As a result, women and men gained access to contraceptives, clinics gained life-saving supplies, and a thousand service providers were trained. Moreover, governments weakened by conflict learned valuable skills that increased their capacity to meet maternal health goals, especially through family planning, and to achieve reproductive health supply commodity security (RHCS).

This business plan for the Maternal Health Thematic Fund outlines its goals, guiding principles, results framework, management, governance and monitoring and evaluation processes for the period 2008-2011.

This publication gives an overview of the situation of maternal and newborn health in the East and South East Asia region, with a focus on progress and the interventions needed to save women's and newborn's lives. There is now a clear evidence base of the priority interventions in maternal and newborn health which need to be in place to avert maternal and neonatal mortality in countries with limited resources.

This publication was developed by the Interagency Task Team on Prevention of HIV Transmission in Pregnant Women, Mothers and their Children in response to the slow overall progress to scale up prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) in resource-constrained settings. It provides a framework for concerted partnerships and guidance to countries on specific actions to accelerate this scale-up. The implementation of recommended actions can reinforce some recent encouraging trends in the coverage of national programmes. The global guidance note supports the implementation of all four components of the United Nations comprehensive approach: primary prevention of HIV among women of childbearing age; preventing unintended pregnancies among women living with HIV; preventing HIV transmission from a women living with HIV to her infant; and providing appropriate treatment, care and support to women living with HIV and to their children and families.

The Maternal Heath Thematic Fund Annual Report 2008 analyzes the needs of priority countries for improved delivery outcomes and outlines the strategy for moving forward. It includes summaries of needs assessments from 11 countries selected for support, including: Bénin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Madagascar, Malawi and Sudan. Both fertility and maternal mortality are very high in all of these countries. The Maternal Health Thematic Fund was launched by UNFPA in 2008 to help key countries improve maternal and newborn health by identifying and addressing obstacles to progress in national systems. The fund supports approaches that are country-owned and country-driven.

The Emergency Obstetric Care Handbook is the revised version of the former "Guidelines for assessing the availability, use and quality of obstetric services published jointly in 1997 by UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO and AMDD (the Averting Maternal Death and Disability programme of Columbia University). Access to emergency obstetric care (EmOC) for all pregnant women with complications is one of the 3 pillars of the reduction of maternal mortality, the fifth MDG. Kindly note that the preliminary French version of the Handbook is also linked here, and a final version will be posted as soon as available.

This Essential Medical list gives priority status to medicines that address a country's most pressing public health problems--they are a vital tool for improving and maintaining health.

Investing in Midwives and Others with Midwifery Skills to Save the Lives of Mothers and Newborns and Improve Their Health: Policy and Programme Guidance for Countries Seeking to Scale Up Midwifery Services, Especially at the Community Level

This report documents experiences and lessons related to training and scaling-up the midwifery workforce. These lessons were shared at the First International Forum on Midwifery in the Community (Tunisia, 2006).

This is a report on a conference held to introduce UNFPA's fistula campaign in South Asia to review current knowledge about obstetric fistula in the region and to discuss steps for moving forward with the campaign in the region.

The workshop aimed to contribute to the agenda, and respond to the global focus on human resources for health–the theme of this year’s World Health Report. At the workshop, the first of its kind for UNFPA, midwives from developing and industrialized countries, and midwifery advisors working at the international level, discussed with UNFPA staff and UNFPA partners the major barriers to the development of midwifery skills and proposed solutions.

This publication is one of a series on HIV and infant feeding. It presents the scientific evidence relating to the transmission of HIV infection by breastfeeding; this evidence constitutes the basis of the following documents: 1) HIV and infant feeding: Framework for priority action; 2) HIV and infant feeding: Guidelines for decision-makers; and 3) HIV and infant feeding: A guide for health-care managers and supervisors.  HIV transmission through breastfeeding- A review of available evidence describes briefly the benefits of breastfeeding for mothers and infants in general. Transmission by breastfeeding is discussed in the light of overall mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 infection.

This second edition of the UNFPA Maternal Mortality Update focuses on Emergency Obstetric Care, an intervention that is fundamental to reducing maternal mortality worldwide. The momentum for addressing maternal mortality has been strengthened by numerous international resolutions—most recently the Millennium Development Goals agreed upon at the Millennium Summit in September 2000. The Millennium Declaration calls for a 75 per cent reduction of 1990 maternal mortality rates by 2015. This report analyses the issue and shares tools and experiences to meet this challenge.

The document opens by summarizing the complexity involved in measuring maternal mortality and the reasons why such measurement is subject to uncertainty, particularly when it comes to monitoring progress. Subsequently, the rationale for the development of 1995 estimates of maternal mortality is presented along with a description of the process through which this was accomplished. This is followed by an analysis and interpretation of the results, comparing them to the 1990 estimates developed by WHO and UNICEF and describing some of the difficulties that such comparisons involve. The final parts of the document present a review of progress in maternal mortality reduction accomplished over the past few years followed by a summary of the kind of information needed to build a fuller understanding of both the levels and trends in maternal mortality and the interventions needed to achieve sustained reductions in the coming few years.

This document reports the global, regional, and country estimates of maternal mortality in 2005, and the findings of the separate assessments of trends of maternal mortality levels since 1990. It summarizes the challenges involved in measuring maternal mortality and the main approaches to measurement, and explains the development of the 2005 maternal mortality estimates and the interpretation of the results. The final section discusses the use and limitations of the estimates, with an emphasis on the importance of improved data quality for maternal mortality estimation. The appendices present data tables of country estimates according to data source and different regional groupings for WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and The World Bank.

UNFPA leads a coalition of organizations committed to the prevention and treatment of fistula, an isolating disability that results from unrelieved obstructed labor. This report, from the second meeting of the working group, documents the considerable progress that has been made in bringing fistula to wider attention, in collecting data about it, and in developing strategies to end fistula in the developing world, just as it has been virtually eliminated in industrialized countries.

A two-page poster showing the real impact of maternal morbidity on a global level - every minute a mother goes missing. She perishes in childbirth or from complications of pregnancy. Her death is preventable. This tragedy adds up to 529,000 deaths each year, leaving a devastating void in families, communities, entire regions. The emotional, social and economic consequences affect every one of us.

These guides can be used to strengthen the integration of HIV prevention into maternal health services and build the capacity of health workers to address the prevention needs of pregnant and postpartum women. Programme planners, health managers, and trainers using these guides will, according to their needs, be able to plan, design and monitor HIV prevention interventions for pregnant and postpartum clients and train health providers to ensure they have the capacity to deliver HIV/AIDS services. The programming guide also includes a key messages card for providing direction on what HIV prevention messages to adapt and integrate into various HIV prevention interventions.

These guides can be used to strengthen the integration of HIV prevention into maternal health services and build the capacity of health workers to address the prevention needs of pregnant and postpartum women. Program planners, health managers, and trainers using these guides will, according to their needs, be able to plan, design and monitor HIV prevention interventions for pregnant and postpartum clients and train health providers to ensure they have the capacity to deliver HIV/AIDS services. The programming guide also includes a key messages card for providing direction on what HIV prevention messages to adapt and integrate into various HIV prevention interventions.

This publication is one of a series on HIV and infant feeding. It presents the scientific evidence relating to the transmission of HIV infection by breastfeeding; this evidence constitutes the basis of the following documents: 1) HIV and infant feeding: Framework for priority action; 2) HIV and infant feeding: Guidelines for decision-makers; and 3) HIV and infant feeding: A guide for health-care managers and supervisors. HIV transmission through breastfeeding- A review of available evidence describes briefly the benefits of breastfeeding for mothers and infants in general. Transmission by breastfeeding is discussed in the light of overall mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 infection.