Guttmacher institute just released a new study on the appalling state of maternal mortality in India.  With the second highest population in the world, one quarter of maternal deaths worldwide occurs in India.  The study found that almost 75% of women in the most populous state give birth without a trained professional.  To read more, [...]

This week, Akimbo, the blog for the International Women’s Health Coalition, published a 3-part series on the importance of investing in women taken from a speech given at the 20th World Population Day in Abuja, Nigeria.
Part one of the series talks about the economic crisis and the impact it has on women.
Women tend to be hit [...]

Please click on the calendar spreadsheet below for a comprehensive list of events focused on sexual and reproductive health issues, including maternal and newborn health, for 2009 – 2010. We will be updating this calendar periodically. Please leave a comment below if you would like us to add your event to the calendar. Click here [...]

Today, supermodel, actress, and mother Liya Kebede posted to the Huffington Post about, “We Need a Global Fund for Moms.” In her piece, she wrote:
When it comes to progress on saving mother’s lives, you have to follow the money. Countries such as Honduras and Nepal prove that rapid, dramatic progress is possible if resources [...]

Earlier this month, Sia Nyama Koroma, First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone, wrote an article on Huffington Post titled, “It’s Time to Make Mothers a Priority.” In this piece, Sia Nyama Koroma writes: “We say goodbye to our mothers and sisters as they go into labor, and we know too well that a [...]

Our very own Jill Sheffield has posted on Conversations for a Better World as a “conversation starter.” In her blog post, she writes:
Women need to be treated with respect and dignity, they need to be healthy, and they need to be able to plan the number and spacing of their pregnancies. If they are able [...]

Amnesty International just uploaded this video. Watch it and then read this article on CNN.com about pregnancy and childbirth in Peru. Both resources come out of a new report launched by Amnesty International called “Fatal Flaws: Barriers to Maternal Health in Peru” which found that hundreds of poor, rural and indigenous pregnant women are dying [...]

Last year, at the G8 in Japan, the leaders of the world paid attention to maternal health. They recognized that saving women’s lives was a great investment in the social and economic well-being of the world. But this year, it’s a different story. After more than 20+ years in safe motherhood, I wish that progress was [...]

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama’s visit to Africa this weekend “will send a powerful message to the world about their commitment to ensuring Africa’s continued progress,” wrote Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) in an opinion piece in The Hill. She continues that “for Africa to make this long-forestalled progress, a renewed promise must be [...]

David Olson, the Global Health Council’s Director of Policy Communications, is blogging all this week and sending updates via the GHC Twitter (search HashTag: #G8) from the 2009 G8 Summit in Italy. Olson is participated in the civil society pre-meeting in Rome and will blog about the G8 leaders arrivals. Check out their blog [...]