Author: margeberer
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Botched Motherhood – A Poem
A poem by Tiro Sebina – featured in Reproductive Health Matters May 2012 You may not want to hear About a woman who died In labour in a hut You may not want to hear About an expectant woman Who perished aboard A donkey cart On a bumpy road to an apology Of a health post With…
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All I had to do was take a pill every day, I was told, and hey presto, I didn’t have to worry about getting pregnant!
Marge Berer, Editor, Reproductive Health Matters I was among the first generation of women in the 1960s to experience the miracle of the pill just at the age when I was wanting to start having sex. All I had to do was take a pill every day, I was told, and hey presto, I didn’t…
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Trends in maternal mortality 1990-2010: latest data
by Marge Berer Editor Reproductive Health Matters Thanks to the Millennium Development Goals and much work on the part of the UN, WHO, many governments and NGOs globally and nationally, the press and media are now highly attuned to what is happening as regards maternal mortality. An announcement by WHO on behalf of the United…
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Limitations of global estimates of maternal mortality – Nepal
The latest United Nations publication on global estimates of maternal mortality was released in May this year. Some of the news from this report is good, that despite big regional variations, overall maternal mortality is reducing at a global level. One limitation of the estimates is that they fail to shine a light on the…
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Maternal health: hospital delivery does not guarantee good care
Hospital delivery does not guarantee good care: recent cases of women who died in a referral hospital in a sub-Saharan African country Published on the British Medical Journal Guest Blog, 17 May 2012 A key focus of work in the field of safe motherhood has been on increasing deliveries in medical facilities with access to…
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An unholy alliance: religion, neo-liberal economics and good old fashioned patriarchy – restricting women’s abortion rights in Eastern Europe
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A report from guest blogger Charlotte Gage on ‘How much does abortion cost?’ a session organised by ASTRA Central and Eastern European Women’s Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights at the AWID Forum in Istanbul. I attended this session where speakers from Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia outlined the economic dimension of sexual…
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Another anti-abortion missionary
Published on the British Medical Journal Guest Blog, 26 March 2012 Punch-drunk on power after his success at sticking up two fingers to the entire health profession at the passage of the Health & Social Care bill in Parliament this week, Andrew Lansley has apparently found a new mission – to harass doctors and clinics…
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‘The death of a woman due to pregnancy complications is not only a biological fact; it is also a political choice.’1
In 2008 UK spending on Mother’s Day gifts may have amounted to as much as UK£1.6bn, while last year it was estimated that consumers in the United States would spend as much as US$16bn. This contrasts sharply with spending on basic life-saving care for mothers in much of the global south – with some countries…
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Is eradication of congenital syphilis feasible?
On 1 March, the Global Congenital Syphilis Partnership held a press conference to announce the launch of a global campaign to eradicate congenital syphilis, motivated by evidence from a seven-country pilot study that used a rapid blood test for screening. The aim of the studies was to test pregnant women for syphilis, treat any who…