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.
677 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Blog
-
Call for Stories on What Didn’t Work in Maternal and Newborn Health
Global health researchers and donors are quick to report on program successes in conferences and publications but it is difficult to find documentation of what didn’t go as planned – programs or elements of programs that did not meet their objectives or had unintended negative consequences. As a result of a collective silence on what has not worked, we miss opportunities to learn from valuable experience, and ineffective approaches are often reinvented. At this year’s Global Maternal Neonatal Health Conference, Merck for Mothers is working with the Maternal Health Task Force to help to break the silence around projects that didn’t give the expected results, and we need your help!… read more
-
Check Out These Events and Funding Opportunities in Maternal Health!
Interested in learning more about maternal health policy? Looking for scholarships to participate in the Women Deliver conference? Are you a young researcher interested in preeclampsia or HELPP syndrome? If so, check out the following opportunities! … read more
-
In Nepal, Community Health Volunteers Increase Access to Reproductive Health Supplies
Nepal has experienced a substantial reduction in maternal mortality in recent years. Credit has been given to community health workers known as Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) for this achievement. However, Nepal still has a high rate of maternal mortality at 170 deaths per 100,000 live births and unsafe abortion is one of the main causes of these deaths. This blog is aimed to promote the function of FCHVs in pregnancy testing and making referrals in villages of Nepal… read more
-
10 New Opportunities in Maternal Health
Ten more new jobs to explore as you navigate your way through a career committed to maternal health. Leadership: Chief of Party, RMNCH: Pathfinder (Nigeria) Deputy Chief of Party, RMNCH:…
-
Misoprostol for Postpartum Hemorrhage: Translating Promise Into Reality
In Kenya, where I work as an advocate for women’s health and rights, women continue to die during pregnancy and childbirth at alarming rates. Approximately 25% of these deaths are due to heavy bleeding following childbirth, also known as postpartum hemorrhage or PPH. More than half of women deliver at home; that proportion can be even higher in some counties with limited infrastructure and predominantly rural populations. Even in cases where a woman arrives to a health facility in time, she can still face significant barriers to receive the care she needs… read more
-
Managing Postpartum Hemorrhage at Home Deliveries in Chitral, Pakistan
In Chitral district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Province, Pakistan, a high rate of home births translates to inadequate or nonexistent treatment for life-threatening obstetric complications, like postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). Customarily, home births are managed by a traditional birth attendant and if a complication like PPH arises, the only care available is to transfer the woman to a higher level facility or have a skilled provider called to the woman’s home to administer oxytocin as treatment. In Chitral, many villages are located far from health centers and access to care is especially difficult due to poor infrastructure and limited transport. Faced with these barriers, women who develop PPH are rarely transferred to a facility, so having treatment options available at home is critical… read more
-
Spreading the Message of the International Day for Maternal Health and Rights
On April 11th, the world gathered to celebrate the second annual International Day for Maternal Health and Rights. Voices of maternal health groups from around the world called for recognition and action on human rights abuses that women suffer during pregnancy, labor and the time after birth. These voices were organized by the MHTF and CHANGE into a blog carnival during the week leading up to April 11th. From health disparities in the U.S. to fighting stigma against HIV-positive women in India, 24 different blogs were shared that chronicled women’s experiences and the work we have left to do as the maternal health community. We invite you to learn more about the International Day for Maternal Health and Rights and the stories of women from around the world by reading these featured blogs… read more
-
Addressing Disparities in the U.S. for Maternal Health and Rights
While much global attention has focused on the 99% of maternal deaths that occur in low- and middle-income countries, the U.S. is one of the few countries where the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) has actually risen over the past decade. More troubling are the inconsistencies between ethnic and socioeconomic populations. According to Amnesty International, an African-American woman is nearly four times as likely to die as a white woman during birth… read more
-
Let’s Reward the Use of Maternal Health Supplies
As far as maternal health supplies go, it is easy for groups to forget the role of the three key life-saving commodities and therefore fail to prioritize their presence in health facilities 100% of the time. Arguably, services — with their immediate human element — make for better story-telling a lot of the time. And good storytelling is a mainstay of the marketing and publicity that surround award mechanisms. And by comparison, supplies often carry rather sterile connotations of warehouses, supply chains, and transportation… read more
-
Reflecting on the Maternal Health Collections
In celebration of the MHTF-PLOS Maternal Health collaboration we take a look back through the collections and highlight some of the most influential and interesting articles included in the collections….