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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Lancet’s Commission on Women and Health report: What Does it Mean for Newborns?
By: Ana Langer, Director of the Maternal Health Task Force and Women and Health Initiative; Annie Kearns, Project Manager, Maternal Health Task Force, Women and Health Initiative This was originally…
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Maternal and Child Health in Morocco
Since the 90s and especially during the last decade, Morocco has made significant improvement in terms of maternal and child health (MCH). Continuous efforts during two decades resulted in cutting-down the maternal mortality ratio by 66%. This improvement is to some extent correlated with a progressive increase in MCH service utilization and free care for pregnancy, childbirth and obstetric complications…read more
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Event: Panel on Obstetric Fistula and Uterine Prolapse Next Week
This Wilson Center event, Restoring Hope and Dignity: New Developments and Best Practices in Addressing Maternal Morbidities, supported by the MHTF, will feature a panel presentation of the newest data and best practices from those who work most closely with maternal morbidities like obstetric fistula and pelvic organ prolapse. Both morbidities illustrate the global imperative to address non-wealthy nations’ lack of access to preventative and curative health services, which creates insurmountable barriers to overcoming preventable and treatable maternal morbidity and mortality… read more
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13 New Job Openings in Maternal Health!
Are you interested in a job in maternal health? Check out new openings…read more
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A Maternity Ward During the Ebola Outbreak: My Experience As an Ebola Fighter
There are so many ways to become famous; unfortunately West Africa will mark human being history by being the area on Earth which experienced the worst Ebola outbreak. Ebola disease was known since 1976, but in this part of the world, no one was having an idea about it in November 2013 when the first cases started in Guinea Conakry. The weakness of the health system, the poor communication, the lack of coordination and resources contributed to the quick and large spread of the disease all over the subregion. Ebola created fear and panic in the societies of all countries affected; a lot of health facilities closed because health workers- who paid a huge tribute during this outbreak became afraid to treat any patients with Ebola-like symptoms. So the virus was killing one person directly and several others indirectly—mainly women—because all complications during pregnancy present similarly to Ebola (e.g. infection, eclampsia, bleeding, etc). Our intervention as Ebola fighters was less to treat patients affected by the virus than to avoid that those who were not Ebola infected died due to lack of proper care… read more
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Upcoming Maternal Health Webinars and Events!
Merging Marketing and Gender Analysis Perspectives on Family Planning in the DRC This July 2 webinar considers the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has one of the world’s lowest…
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How to Measure the Quality of Facility-based Labor and Delivery Care in Sub-Saharan Africa
Yesterday, quality measures for maternal health were published in PLoS ONE in an attempt to fill the need for better definitions and tools for measuring and improving quality in labor and delivery (L&D) care. Over the past decade, we have seen a profound shift in the use of maternal health services. Now, more than ever, women are delivering in health facilities, with an estimated 64% of women in developing countries and 51% of women in the 69 poorest countries giving birth in facilities in 2012. Studies have shown that maternal mortality can stagnate even as facility deliveries increase rapidly, most likely due to poor quality of care. It is most crucial to improve information about the quality of L&D care. In order to fill this need, we surveyed global maternal and newborn care experts to build a consensus on the dimensions of quality of care in the intrapartum and immediate postpartum period… read more
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Mexican Association of Midwifery Holds its First Regional Forum
By: Arianna Taboada, Independent Research Consultant; Lauren French Hoy, Professional Midwife and Independent Research Consultant, MSM, CPM Last month, the Mexican Association of Midwifery (Asociación Mexicana de Partería or AMP)…
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Stigma and the Language of Mental Health in Mothers
How do we talk about mental illness in pregnancy? Well, we don’t. Not that we don’t know about it at all; pregnancy-related mental illness, for the most part, is well-recognised culturally. But it’s not what mothers talk about while they work and watch their children play. Together with their partners (where partners are supportive), new mothers struggle to come to terms with symptoms they themselves can barely articulate. Both the women and their partners feel alone, while unknown to them, similar experiences within their own circle of friends and family members might well abound… read more
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#EndDisrespect: Let’s Talk About Respectful Maternity Care
Yesterday, the MHTF, Pathfinder International and White Ribbon Alliance hosted a tweet chat on respectful maternity care. With the tweet chat, we hoped to bring organizations and people working in maternal…