The maternal mortality ratio is unacceptably high in Africa. Forty per cent of all pregnancy-related deaths worldwide occur in Africa. On average, over 7 women die per 1,000 live births. About 22,000 African women die each year from unsafe abortion, reflecting a high unmet need for contraception. Contraceptive use among women in union varies from 50 per cent in the southern sub-region to less than 10 per cent in middle and western Africa" UNFPA
Early and unwanted childbearing, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and pregnancy-related illnesses and deaths account for a significant proportion of the burden of illness experienced by women in Africa. Gender-based violence is an influential factor negatively impacting on the sexual and reproductive health of one in every three women. Many are unable to control decisions to have sex or to negotiate safer sexual practices, placing them at great risk of disease and health complications.
According to UNAIDS, there is an estimated of 22.2 million people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan African in 2009, which represents 68% of the global HIV burden. Women are at higher risk than men to be infected by HIV, their vulnerability remains particulary high in the Sub-Saharan Africa and 76% of all HIV women in the world live in this region.
In almost all countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, the majority of people living with HIV are women, especially girls and women aged between 15-24. Not only are women more likely to become infected, they are more severely affected. Their income is likely to fall if an adult man loses his job and dies. Since formal support to women are very limited, they may have to give up some income-genrating activities or sacrifice school to take care of the sick relatives.
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Source: Human Rights Watch
South Africa’s new campaign to reduce maternal mortality is an important step to address a serious problem, but accountability will be the key to making it work, Human Rights Watch said today. The campaign is aimed at reducing the number of women who die needlessly from preventable and treatable causes linked to pregnancy and childbirth.
Niger is the worst country on earth in which to be a mother, according to a report by Save the Children. The charity's annual Mothers' Index uses statistics covering female and child health and nutrition, as well as prospects for women's education, economic prosperity and political participation in its assessment of 165 countries.
Source: The Namibian
WITH the launch of the Fertility Clinic in Windhoek last month, In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) is at long last becoming a reality in Namibia.
Source: Women E-News
Clinicians sent to a Ghanaian ethnic group chide mothers for obeying kinship health rules, writes Aaron R. Denham in this excerpted essay from "Risk, Reproduction, and Narratives of Experience." The result is double-whammy pressure.
Source: IRIN News
ANTSOHIHY, 4 May 2012 (IRIN) - Daughters as young as 12 in the villages surrounding Antsohihy, the capital of Sofia Region, in Madagascar's remote, traditional north, often suffer the harmful consequences of falling pregnant and giving birth too young when parents accept zebus (cattle) or cash as a dowry.
Source: East Coast Radio
The number of ambulances that are dedicated to maternity emergencies are set to be increased as part of a continent-wide campaign to prevent the death of mothers and babies in childbirth.
The campaign for the legalisation of abortion in Botswana has taken unprecedented levels in the recent past. The Assistant Minister of Local Government Ms. Tshireletso has called on government to consider legalising abortion. There is another dimension to this issue. It relates to reproductive rights of women and their right to determine when to bear children. Liberty relates to the right to do what is permitted by law.
As Sylvia Nalubowa cried out in agony and begged the nurses to help her, she pledged to give them part of her kibanja (plot of land), hens and pigs if they could save her life.
Source: IRIN
lack of awareness of the importance of skilled hospital deliveries in Ethiopia, cultural beliefs, and transport challenges in rural areas are causing a high number of deaths during childbirth, say officials.
Since this story was initially published in early 2010, the contraceptive prevalence rate for long-acting family planning methods has already increased -- from 1.3 per cent to 4.3 per cent according to the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey, 2011. This has helped boost the overall increase in CPR in the country from 14 to 29 percent between 2005 and 2011. Hormonal implants are one of three contraceptives given priority under the newly formed United Nations Commission on Commodities for Women and Children’s Health .
As the father of four daughters and as the Executive Director for UNFPA, a leading UN agency working on maternal health, it warms my heart to see that safe motherhood and women's reproductive health are finally being recognized as important development issues.