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.
For more information on HIV/AIDS and Reproductive health, please visit the following websites:
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
President Donald Trump's dramatic expansion of a policy blocking U.S. aid to organisations offering abortion services will have one sure result, say medical workers in this city: more abortions.
Source: hrw.org
Most women and girls in the rebel-held Nuba Mountains of Sudan lack access to reproductive health care, including emergency obstetric care, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Their plight is one of the little known yet far-reaching effects of years of obstruction of aid to the area by the Sudanese government and armed opposition.
Every other December, scores of Tanzanian girls endure what's colloquially known as "cutting season." Now, new mapping technology can help activists locate girls who might be in danger—and get them to safe houses before it's too late.
Source: Medium
It was a long walk home for Maria on that day in Malawi in February 2011. She had been trying for two years to become pregnant, and the nurse at the clinic had just confirmed that she was indeed pregnant with her first child! But the nurse also explained that she was HIV positive, and needed to take steps to protect her unborn child from becoming HIV positive, and for her own health.
Source: THE CITIZEN
The government plans to produce skilled anaesthesiologists to promote the best practice in the fields of anaesthesia in the country in a fresh bid to avert maternal mortality among Tanzanian women.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has said the federal government has concluded plans to improve the standard of midwifery practices in the country. This is coming as a Nollywood actor and producer, Jim Iyke, was unveiled as the Special Envoy/Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child health. Adewole made this known yesterday during the commemoration of the 2017 International Day of the Midwife (IDM) in Abuja.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
In the small maternity ward of a run-down health clinic in Delft, a half hour drive from Cape Town, the wooden benches in the waiting area are filled with young women and girls from the poor surrounding townships.
Source: News Deeply
In Angola, lawmakers are working on updating the country’s 130-year-old penal code, inherited from the Portuguese colonial government. This includes a proposed change that has taken many by surprise: making abortion completely illegal – with no exceptions for rape, fetus malformation, or when the mother’s life is in danger.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
A cheap and widely available drug could save the lives of one in three of the 100,000 new mothers who bleed to death after childbirth every year, mostly in poorer countries, according to the first study of its use in postpartum haemorrhage.
In a trial of 20,000 women, researchers found that the drug, called tranexamic acid or TXA, cut the number of deaths due to post-partum bleeding by 31 percent if given within three hours. The treatment costs about $2.50 in most countries, they said.
“I have seen girls become pregnant, become victims of violence and become HIV-positive, and I don't want to become one of those girls,” said 13-year-old Lydia Mwelwa, a student at Kabulonga Basic School in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital.
“I’m happy they have taught us in school how we girls can protect ourselves,” she added.
Source: News Deeply
Two year ago, during Liberia’s Ebola outbreak, Mamie Tarr began hemorrhaging. When she arrived at the clinic, clutching her abdomen and complaining of intense pain, health workers at first suspected Ebola. In fact, without telling her family, the 30-year-old had visited a backstreet abortionist who used a combination of herbs, chalk and a rusty syringe to terminate her five-month pregnancy.