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The Urgent Need for a Million More Midwives Worldwide
Did you know that a woman dies every two minutes from complications during childbirth? Ninety-nine percent of these deaths are wholly preventable and happen all over the world, even in the United States. That is why the International Confederation of Midwives has launched a global initiative called One Million More Midwives, calling on governments and…
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CDC Releases Maternal Mortality Rates for 2024
The new maternal mortality rates from 2024 were released this week from the National Center for Health Statistics. Most of the data remain the same as in 2023, with a modest decrease in maternal deaths from 669 to 649.
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When You Start Knowing Women Who Have Passed Away After Childbirth
A few years ago a family member died unexpectedly after childbirth. Her passing completely wrecked her family and they still have not recovered from her loss. And recently I learned of the recent passing of another mother who died immediately after childbirth. She was a community activist and focused her efforts on maternal health issues.…
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Study Shows Increase in Maternal Mortality by Race and Ethnicity Over Last 20 Years
Another recent study, Trends in State-Level Maternal Mortality by Racial and Ethnic Group in the United States published in JAMA, has provided data showing that maternal health outcomes in the United States are worsening despite state and national interventions to decrease maternal mortality.
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Poor knowledge and practice around oxytocin could put women in Nigeria at risk during childbirth
Chioma S. Ejekam, University of Lagos and Chimezie Anyakora, Pan Atlantic University Severe bleeding after childbirth – postpartum hemorrhage – is a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in middle-income countries. Oxytocin is an affordable and effective drug that’s recommended to prevent postpartum hemorrhage. But there are concerns about the quality of oxytocin available…
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World Health Leaders Change Targets to Reach 2030 Maternal Health Development Goal
The COVID pandemic did much to upend global health. Not only were hospitals filled to overcapacity worldwide with patients experiencing severe COVID symptoms, but entire health systems were also brought to a halt. Routine medical procedures and quality care in other areas besides COVID were preempted by the global virus. This has caused global health…
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The Universal Human Right to an Identity from Birth Explained
By Caroline Kinsella, Advocacy and Communications Intern, White Ribbon Alliance One of the more hidden human rights abuses around the world is the fact that one billion people have no legal proof of identity. Alarmingly, UNICEF estimates that about one in four children under age 5, or 166 million, are unregistered and without any trace…
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5 Virtual Valentine’s Day Gifts to Help Mothers Worldwide
This year while we are all still mostly locked down due to Covid-19, there are ways in which we can donate to the issues we care about most. For SocialGoodMoms.com, our primary issue is mothers — always has been and always will be — and there are a vast majority of ways to help moms…
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2021 Black Maternal Health Legislation Updated With Covid-19, Climate Change Bills #Momnibus
In 2020, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) and Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) along with then California senator Kamala Harris introduced the Black Maternal Health Momnibus, a series of nine bills that took racial disparities out of the maternal health outcomes, funded communty-based maternal health organizations, improved data collection, and invested in digital health tools among other pertinent issues.…
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Black Doctor Dies During Childbirth #MaternalHealth #BlackMaternalHeaLTH
I do not take pleasure in writing about black maternal health in general or specifically about black women who die either during pregnancy, giving birth, directly after birth, or even a year after having a baby. In fact, it is depressing. In this case, however, despite the other women who have died publicly during and/or…
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CDC Launches Campaign To Raise Awareness About Pregnancy and Postpartum Warning Signs
The other day I wrote about a Youtube mom who recently gave birth to her son and then recognized that her blood pressure was too high after she was released from the hospital. She immediately visited her OBGYN and then ultimately was hospitalized due to the severity of her condition, preeclampsia. You can follow her…
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![[VIDEO] Mother Advocates for Her Own Health After Delivery And Preeclampsia #BlackMaternalHealth](https://socialgoodmoms.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/rushed-to-the-hospital-youtube.png)
[VIDEO] Mother Advocates for Her Own Health After Delivery And Preeclampsia #BlackMaternalHealth
A few years ago I was honored to speak at Blogher with Merck for Mothers. The panel was about maternal health outcomes globally as well as in the United States. As I have mentioned so many times on this blog, the United States leads the developing world with maternal health deaths. This number is exaccerbated…
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The CDC Releases Newly Updated Maternal Death Statistics in Over a Decade
United States maternal death statistics that have been used for over a decade have finally been updated. The CDC released 2018 national and state maternal death estimates last week. The numbers have increased dramatically and still remain the worst of any developed country in the world. Currently, the maternal mortality rate (MMR) is 17.4 deaths…
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Woman Dies From Pregnancy-Related Complications After Waiting Hours in Emergency Room
You have probably heard the story of Tashonna Ward, the 25-year-old Milwaukee woman who recently spent hours in the emergency room due to shortness of breath and died after waiting too long. Ward was told that she would spend between two to six hours in wait time at the ER according to distressing posts on…
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9 Maternal Health Stories Worth Reading This Weekend
Now that 2020 is in full swing I decided to catch up on the many maternal health and mortality articles that were published during the holiday season. There has been a lot of stellar reporting that you might have missed. I did. Here is a compilation of some of the articles I found the most…
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5 Things to Know About Maternal Health This Week
The CDC released a new report late last week, Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Pregnancy-Related Deaths — United States, 2007–2016, that reiterates the maternal mortality disparity between black mothers and American Indian/Alaska Native women and white, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander women. The numbers now seem worse than we originally thought. For example, black women who are college…
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[WATCH] Video Shows Horrors of Childbirth in Sierra Leone #MaternalHealth
The United Nations has designated Sierra Leone as the most dangerous place to have a baby. In fact, it has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world at 1,360 deaths per 100,000 live births. On average, most women have at least six babies in Sierra Leone. In a previous post I mentioned the Aminata…
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Joint Commission Creates New Standards of Care to Curb Maternal Mortality
One of the leading causes of maternal mortality in the United States is hemorrhaging. In fact, according to the CDC hemorrhaging accounts for 11.2% of pregnancy-related deaths. Based on these increasing numbers since 1986 the Joint Commission, the country’s leading accreditation organization for hospitals, has created 13 new standards for perinatal safety for hospitals to…
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Congressional Black Maternal Health Caucus Launches on Capitol Hill
On Tuesday the first congressional caucus on black maternal health launched on Capitol Hill. Led by Democrat congresswomen Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) and freshman Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Il.) the caucus’s mission is to ensure black women are not dying senselessly during or after childbirth As has been noted here many times before black women experience…
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Kenya’s Marie Stopes ban may drive more women to unsafe abortions
According to the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board, they banned abortion services provided by Marie Stopes following complaints from the general public. Restrictive laws mean that women resort to unsafe means. jbdodane/Flickr Michael Mutua, African Population and Health Research Center The Kenyan Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board has stopped the NGO Marie Stopes International from performing…