"Infertility in low-income countries is a neglected reproductive health issue, despite its staggering impact," wrote Marie Thoma, PhD, MHS, nominating it for Global Health NOW's annual Untol
April 14, 2020
Laboring women in Venezuela are forced to travel from hospital to hospital in a cruel game of “roulette,” desperate to find a facility equipped to deliver their baby. If that doesn’t happen in time, they deliver on the street or in facility lobbies—mothers and babies have…
April 6, 2020
COVID-19’s multiple frontlines now include at least 46 countries across the African continent. Many, including Ethiopia, have frontline health care facilities battling without one of the most critical tools: adequate water and sanitation.
March 24, 2020
Parents-to-be are rushing to adjust their birth plans amid the COVID-19 pandemic—and so are hospitals, The Atlantic reports.
February 26, 2020
Staff at some South African hospitals forced pregnant HIV-positive women into sterilization after giving birth. The Commission for Gender Equality confirmed 48 cases in 2015 where women signed consent forms for sterilization procedures under duress. The country has one of…
February 20, 2020
Through efforts like Family Planning 2020, contraception has become a focal point of global health initiatives. But uptake is uneven across age groups. A new JAMA study found that the prevalence of unmet need for family planning was 50.8% among adolescents (ages 15-19…
February 12, 2020
At 49%, Indonesia’s rate of female circumcision is the third highest in the world—despite laws banning the practice. What keeps it going? In Indonesia, female genital mutilation is rooted as much in family tradition as in religion, according to new research from Gajah…
February 10, 2020
Compared to white women, American Indian and Alaska Natives are more than 2X as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes. And Native women in urban areas—where there’s better access to care—fare no better than those on rural reservations.
February 6, 2020
In a fresh push to end FGM by 2030, WHO launched a new tool today that calculates the cost of the practice, marking the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, UN News reports.
January 22, 2020
America’s tragic racial inequity in maternal mortality is baked into health systems and will take time, legislative lobbying, and structural change to uproot. In the meantime, birth workers are doubling down to support black birthing families. SELF profiled 8 of them,…