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Book Review: No Woman Left Behind
No Woman Left Behind: A Journey of Hope to Heal Every Woman Injured in Childbirth by Kate Grant My rating: 5 of 5 stars No Woman Left Behind: A Journey of Hope to Heal Every Woman Injured in Childbirth is a powerful and deeply moving memoir by Kate Grant, founding CEO of the Fistula Foundation.…
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Why Women and Girls Are Still the Most Vulnerable in Global Health Crises
Amid the global health funding crisis, I often think about the trickle-down effect of the closure of USAID. No matter if some believe the agency was a burden on American taxpayers or not, there is no doubt that the work it accomplished over the decades created measurable change for women and girls, from improved maternal…
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The Most Dangerous Place to Give Birth in the World and Four Ways You Can Help
Despite decades of progress in global health, pregnancy and childbirth remain life-threatening events for millions of women, especially in the world’s most fragile settings.
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5 Organizations Whose Work I’ve Seen and Deserve Your Donations
During the holidays, one of the gifts my late mother gave to each of her children was a donation to a worthy cause made in our individual names. Every year, I looked forward to learning which organization she had chosen. It was one of the most creative and meaningful gifts she ever gave us. If…
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Gates Highlights the Rise in Child Deaths Amid Global Health Cuts
Today, the Gates Foundation released its annual Goalkeepers report that tracks the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals. This year’s report, We Can’t Stop at Almost, highlights the growing number of child deaths given the recent cuts to global health funding.
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We’ll Always Need the Toilet: The Importance of World Toilet Day
Today on this World Toilet Day we are reminded of the 3.4 billion people who still do not have access to safe toilets. Toilets are a human right.
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How the Funding Crisis Affects Maternal and Child Health
The Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) recently conducted a snap survey of 20 of its partners to measure the deleterious effects of the funding crisis on global health programs. As expected, the decrease in funding has caused the immediate closure of health programs in lower-and-middle income countries. There is also a severe…
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Understanding the America First Global Health Strategy
The Trump administration, through the State Department, released its America First Global Health Strategy. This strategy has been long-awaited. The US global health community saw mass firings and the abrupt dismantling of USAID earlier this year.
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President Signed the Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act of 2024
My sweet mother always told me about her many births. In all, four of us lived, but many did not. Several of my would-be brothers and sisters passed away from still or crib birth. Some were named and some were not. My mother has always been extremely powerful to share her birth experiences with me…
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New Law Bans Child Marriage in Sierra Leone
Photo by Majkl Velner on Unsplash This month Sierra Leone banned child marriage and laid out severe punishments for those engaging in marrying girls and boys off before their 18th birthday. 30 percent of girls in Sierra Leone are married before 18. More girls can focus on furthering their education instead of starting families at…
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Pending Reproductive Health Decisions on the Supreme Court Docket
Supreme Court decisions are expected this month about legal doctor and mail-order prescriptions of the FDA-approved abortion pill, mifepristone, as well as whether health practitioners can provide pregnant patients with stabilizing emergency services such as an abortion where appropriate and essential for stabilization or survival.
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Baylor University Conducts In-Person, Virtual Training to Save Mothers, Babies
Baylor College of Medicine has performed substantive work in The Gambia to instruct frontline health workers on maternal and child health through its “Training of Trainers” and GOALL (Gambian Obstetrics Anesthesia Learning and Leadership) programs. With the ninth-highest maternal mortality rate, access to quality health care for women of reproductive age in The Gambia is…
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Kenya’s healthcare workers abuse a third of teen mums from informal settlements – study
Anthony Idowu Ajayi, African Population and Health Research Center and Caroline W. Kabiru, African Population and Health Research Center Adolescent pregnancy is a global public health concern: in 2022, about 13% of girls and young women gave birth before the age of 18. Compared with women in their early 20s, adolescents are more susceptible to…
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How health workers in Kibera are assessing sick children using a new digital health tool
By Maryanne W. Waweru l maryanne@mummytales.com Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa. After two days of nursing her two-year-old daughter at home, an anxious Maximilla Kangahi made her way to a clinic in her neighbourhood for help. At the health facility, Maximilla was received by Waida Kasaya, clinical officer at the Beyond Zero clinic in Karanja, one of Kibera’s 18…
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Saving lives with medical oxygen in Kenya
For Sandra Karimi, a nurse at Wangige Hospital in Kenya, treating patients during the COVID-19 pandemic felt like working in a war zone.
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Thoughts on the Passing of Dr. Paul Farmer
When I decided to concentrate on global health in 2011 and started Social Good Moms I learned immediately about Dr. Paul Farmer and the nonprofit he co-founded, Partners in Health. It is absolutely impossible to miss the immense contributions he made to the disciplines of global health, health inequality, and human rights for others to…
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4 Reasons The US Is Back on Track With Global Health
As is true with each new presidential administration the global health community hangs in the balance. According to KFF.org the US global health funding was set at $11 billion in FY 2019 and in 2020 the funding was significantly decreased. This funding goes towards programs in more than 70 countries for HIV, malaria, maternal and…
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The Plight of Female Frontline Health Workers
We have written at length about the power of frontline health workers from documenting female frontline health workers in Ethiopia to discussing the importance of their work as they provide health care to those without access to health centers and hospitals. While we know that frontline health workers are pivotal to the overall health of…
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Living in Poverty In Developing Nations Means a Life in Flux
When I went to Kenya with the ONE Moms last summer we visited the Mukuru kwa Njenga slum in east Nairobi. Like all slums we saw makeshift housing, some barely 10 x 10 rooms that housed entire families. We also visited the Mwangaza Tumaini school that taught some of the brightest children I’ve ever seen. Their zest…