women's health

The debilitating symptoms of perinatal depression are dangerous to mothers and babies alike. But the condition can be prevented, a national panel has reported for the first time.

Today in Cairo, some newborn baby girls will sport blue ribbon pins that look like the Arabic word “no”—showing that their parents are saying no to female genital mutilation, Thomson Reuters Foundation reports.  

When writer Wendy Muperi went undercover in Harare, Zimbabwe, she found a slew of underground options—from pills to herbal remedies—promising to end her fake pregnancy at a fraction of a doctor’s fee. Such services are the only abortion option for many women in Zimbabwe.…

The “crusade against sex education” in Brazil’s far-right government is undermining progress in sexual and reproductive health, reports Fabiana Frayssinet.   President Jair Bolsonaro’s campaign was bolstered by the rise of conservative fundamentalism in Brazil. The country’…

Distributing menstrual supplies to girls in developing countries has been hailed as an important step in ending the cycle of poverty—credited with helping girls stay in school, marry later, have fewer children and lift their communities out of poverty. In her new book,…

Less restrictive abortion laws are linked to lower maternal mortality, and vice versa, according to University of Melbourne researchers. Their findings show that reforming restrictive abortion laws could lower maternal mortality and demonstrate a need for services shielding…

The high-profile childbirth difficulties of women like Serena Williams—who suffered blood clots after giving birth at 36—have highlighted racial inequities in maternal health long observed by Arline Geronimus of the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

When doctors tied her limbs and scraped the lining of her uterus without anesthesia after her miscarriage, it was “the 30 most horrible minutes of my life,” Croatian MP Ivana Nincevic-Lesandric told her colleagues in a male-dominated parliament last October.  

The rise of IUDs in America has led some to suggest that the devices can help quell poverty. Wider access to IUDs is seen as a positive, but this argument walks dangerously close to America’s shameful history of reproductive coercion, write Christine Dehlendorf and Kelsey…

Compared to its high-income peers, US women are more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth and skip out on care because of the cost. A study comparing access to health care and health status among 11 high-income nations—including Australia, Norway and the UK—also found…