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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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Celebrate Women’s Day: Get Your Free E-Book
We are giving away our e-book, Simple Steps to Become a Maternal Health Advocate, for free to members of our community only.
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The Best States for Women’s Health
Did you know there are 169 million women in the United States? Studies show that one-third of women postpone necessary medical care due primarily to a lack of access and rising health care costs.
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Texas Cities Have Some of the Highest Preterm Birth Rates in the US, Highlighting Maternal Health Crisis Nationwide
The March of Dimes report scored the U.S. overall a D+ grade on preterm birth rate at 10.4%, but states differ dramatically in their scores. New Hampshire, for example, scored an A- with 7.9% of infants born prematurely, while Mississippi, where 15% of infants are born prematurely, scored an F.
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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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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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Speaking to SayItForward.org about the Birth of Social Good Moms and What’s Next
I was honored to speak with Sharon D’agostino. She is the founder of Say It Forward and co-host of The Power of Stories Podcast along with Yodit Kifle Smith. We discussed how Social Good Moms started and what’s next for the site and community. I also discussed the importance of women using their voice for…
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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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Arizona’s Now-Repealed Abortion Ban Serves As a Cautionary Tale For Reproductive Health Care Across the US
When the Arizona Supreme Court ruled on April 9, 2024, that the state’s Civil War-era law banning nearly all abortions was enforceable, it brought into stark reality the potential impacts of leaving reproductive rights up to the states to regulate, and the related consequences for women’s health.
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Breaking: Supreme Court Ruling Allows Mifepristone to Stay on the Market
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that FDA-approved mifepristone can stay on the market. That is, mifepristone can still be prescribed by physicians and accessed by telehealth and mail-order. The Court stayed the lower courts’ decision to ban the use of the pill stating that the plaintiffs lack standing. We recognize that many citizens, including…
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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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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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Why sexual and reproductive law for east African countries is being resisted
Anthony Idowu Ajayi, African Population and Health Research Center and Nicholas Okapu Etyang, African Population and Health Research Center Six of the countries of the East African Community – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania – recently concluded public hearings on a new sexual and reproductive health bill. Proponents of the bill argue…
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New Documentaries About the Maternal Health Crisis, Sex Trafficking Coming to VOD This Year
When I want to learn more about a subject I always turn to documentaries. They provide a quick way to get the facts and crucial information about an issue I am interested in and then if I want to learn more I turn to other resources including books, news articles, research papers, and the like.…
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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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Donate to Help Expecting Mothers in Haiti
It is difficult to believe how much Haiti is suffering. Not only was its president assassinated a little over a month ago, but a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit last weekend with a death toll now of over 1400. And, if that is not enough, a tropical storm is quickly barreling its way towards the island…