Today The New York Times reported about advised changes in the ways doctors should respond to the pregnancies of women who had previous Caesarean sections. The news report concluded that in many cases women who previously gave birth via C-section are able to later safely deliver vaginally. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists became [...]

The IPS News wire discusses the multitude of ways mothers in Brazil identify meaningfully with pregnancy, labor, and motherhood depending on cultural expectations and traditional considerations. Attending importantly to the ways that there is never a single way of being a mother, the state National Health Foundation’s (FUNASA) Department of Indigenous Health works to respect [...]

According to The Washington Post, the promise of monetary assistance is the newest social motivator to reduce India’s high maternal mortality rate. With one of the worlds worst rates of pregnancy related death, India is confronting the tensions between an ever growing economy and the lack of health related services available to many citizens. With [...]

Today, British medical journal, The Lancet, published a report that states that maternal deaths have fallen from 526,300 in 1980 to 342,900 in 2008. This is a 35% decrease over the past 30 years.
It has long been reported that little progress has been made in reducing maternal mortality, which is defined as death of a [...]

An article appearing in today’s New York Times by Denise Grady sheds light on the challenges faced by struggling medical facilities in Tanzania. Not only  is there a shortage of qualified practitioners in the country, but also a dearth of prenatal care and education — problems contributing to the 13,000 deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth [...]

Celebrated New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has traveled extensively through West Africa as the benefactor of the newspaper’s “Win-a-Trip” contest, a program that gives students the opportunity to join him on an international reporting trip. Today, his column focused on the broken maternal health system he has observed in Sierra Leone, the country with [...]

The New York Times put together an incisive (and much needed) collection of editorials today in honor of Mother’s Day — each looking at a different possible solution for the growing problem posed by maternal morbidity and mortality. We’ve reposted the articles below:
A Birth Pill by Amy Grossman
An analysis of misoprostol, an inexpensive and hardy [...]