Maternal Health Task Force
The Maternal Health Task Force strives to create a strong, well-informed and collaborative community of individuals focused on ending preventable maternal mortality and morbidity worldwide.
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Boston, MA 02115
Blog
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Event Recap: After Copenhagen, What Next for Women and Girls?
Last week, experts in maternal newborn health gathered at the Wilson Center to discuss key takeaways from the 2016 Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen and offer insights on future directions of the health and rights agenda for women and girls. The dialogue, “After Copenhagen, What Next for Women and Girls?” was part of the Maternal Health Task Force’s Advancing Policy Dialogue on Maternal Health Series in partnership with UNFPA and the Wilson Center. Though each panelist attended the conference with a unique background and different perspective, the dialogue revealed several steps that will help advance the reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health agenda…read more
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What Can Maternal Health Learn From the Aviation Industry?
The aviation checklist is designed for critical moments in flying, including before takeoff and before landing. Similarly, the World Health Organization (WHO) Safe Childbirth Checklist addresses four critical moments during childbirth: at admission, just before pushing, within one hour of delivery and at facility discharge. The behaviors on the WHO checklist address the biggest causes of mortality in women and newborns and are thus essential practices arising from evidence-based WHO guidelines…read more
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Promoting Respectful Maternity Care in Tanzania
Disrespect and abuse during childbirth has been observed and recorded all around the world. In addition to being a human rights violation, disrespect and abuse during childbirth discourages women who experience it from seeking health care in the future and ultimately results in poor health outcomes. As a result, a number of organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), have called for improved measurement, programs and advocacy addressing this global issue. With support from The John and Katie Hansen Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Maternal Health Task Force (MHTF) established a research project to measure the prevalence of disrespect and abuse during childbirth in Tanzania and Ethiopia and to develop effective interventions…read more
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Community Perceptions of Pre-eclampsia/Eclampsia in Four Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Reproductive Health recently published a series of research articles describing community perceptions of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia in four low- and middle-income countries: India, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Each study was conducted between 2011 and 2014 using qualitative methods. Participants in these communities used different terminology to describe symptoms of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia, often separating hypertension during pregnancy from seizures during pregnancy. However, participants from each of these communities displayed a basic understanding of the dangers of these conditions, acknowledging that they can lead to death of the mother or newborn…read more
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Global Leaders in Maternal and Newborn Health: Dr. Emmanuel Ugwa (Nigeria)
SMNLW Participant Dr. Emmanuel Ugwa is from Nigeria where he has served as a Consultant Obstetrician/Gynecologist at several hospitals. He is a principal investigator on USAID and Gates-funded research projects in Nigeria. Additionally, Dr. Ugwa sits on review committees and editorial boards for multiple scientific journals and has published numerous research articles himself…read more
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15 New Jobs in Maternal Newborn Health!
Interested in a position in maternal, newborn or reproductive health? Every month, the Maternal Health Task Force rounds up job and internship postings from around the globe…read more
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Scaling Up Innovations in Maternal and Newborn Health: 5 Lessons Learned
A team based at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has studied the critical steps that were taken to help scale up the Saving Newborn Lives neonatal sepsis management innovation, as part of Ethiopia’s flagship Community Based Newborn Care programme with the overall aim of improving maternal and newborn health outcomes. What lessons can the analysis hold for other countries?…read more
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Happening Now: The Second Safe Mothers and Newborns Leadership Workshop
This week the Maternal Health Task Force, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has teamed up with The Aga Khan University and The Barcelona Institute for Global Health to host the second annual Safe Mothers and Newborns Leadership Workshop. The goal of the workshop is to increase the capacity of key players in the field of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health from high burden countries to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality by upgrading their technical knowledge and leadership skills…read more
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Enhancing Maternal Survival by Committing to Agreed Global Health Policies
With the Sustainable Development Goals adopted and the 2015 Global Maternal Newborn Health Conference and 2016 Women Deliver Conference behind us, the time is now to mobilize global and country-level commitment for ending preventable maternal mortality, including commitments to newborn, sexual and reproductive health…read more
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Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health Knowledge Summary: Act Now for Adolescents
The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) recently released its 35th knowledge summary titled “Act Now for Adolescents” focusing on adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 years old. While newborns and children have benefited greatly from scientific research and interventions over the last decade, adolescents have received less attention. Some countries have implemented successful interventions addressing adolescent sexual and reproductive health, but policies and programming for adolescents in most countries remain inadequate. The PMNCH knowledge summary outlines a number of priorities for improving adolescent health globally…read more
