A new report on Tracking progress in maternal, newborn and child survival: Countdown to 2015 will be launched this Thursday, April 17, at the International ‘Countdown to 2015’ Conference in Cape Town, South Africa.
The conference, which takes place on April 17-19, offers a range of opportunities for the global community to bring issues of maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) to the foreground of international debate and policy-making, and to release groundbreaking information on the current state of the world’s progress towards reaching Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5. The event is predicted to be an important milestone following a wave of recent international advocacy efforts to mobilize global commitment and actions in MNCH.
Organized around a series of plenary sessions that focus on intervention coverage, equity, health systems, human resources and aid harmonization, the conference will place special emphasis on parallel sessions to present country case studies and success stories. The main objectives will include disseminating the most recent information on country-level progress in achieving health coverage with interventions for reducing mortality among mothers and children, promoting media visibility for the Countdown to 2015 Report, raising awareness of key decision-markers on MNCH issues, and providing a forum for the development of partnerships dedicated to maternal, newborn and child survival efforts.
With these objectives in mind, this year’s conference intends on making headway toward increasing coverage of key MNCH interventions in countries comprising 97 per cent of the global burden of maternal and childhood deaths. In Nigeria alone about 6 women die every hour from pregnancy-related complications, while infants and children are dying by the thousands every day. The conference is a way to address these tragic figures across the nation and to come up with evidence-based approaches to eliminating such needless deaths among women and children around the world.
‘Countdown to 2015’ takes place in conjunction with the 118th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Cape Town, giving conference organizers and delegates a chance to sensitize over 1,000 Parliamentarians to MNCH issues.
Please visit Development Communication Network’s Media Deliver Now! blog to view the upcoming ‘Tracking progress in maternal, newborn and child survival’ report and to read further updates from South Africa.
By Amanda Hale
Showing posts with label maternal mortality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label maternal mortality. Show all posts
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Maternal mortality and morbidity and the youth
“My neighbor’s wife gave birth to a healthy baby but by the time the medical personnel knew that there was another baby still in her womb, she was already weak. The hospital did not have the equipment to operate on her as the baby was breeched. When they took her to another hospital that had the equipment, there was no power supply to carry out the operation. When she was taken to a government hospital, she died because the hospital initially refused o admit her because she had not registered there early in her pregnancy.”
“I once had a friend who died. Initially we joked with her saying she was going fat. But after we were told she was dead, we later learnt that she was pregnant and went to the chemist to get some drugs. It was these drugs that she took that made her die.”
These are some of the observations made by some of the youth delegates at the youth sexuality Institute of the 3rd African Conference on Sexual Health and Rights. The fact that a selection of youths around Africa were admitted ever knowing pregnant woman who had complications of pregnancy and had adverse effect at childbirth is a pointer that the state of maternal, newborn and child health in Africa and Nigeria in particular leaves more to be desired.
The vibrant discussion was moderated by Dr Lucy Idoko of the UNFPA Abuja office at the second session of the Youth Sexual Institute of the Conference yesterday in a presentation titled ‘Maternal mortality and morbidity and the youth’. In order to mitigate the high rate of maternal mortality and morbidity, youths should have a firm grasp of the causes of maternal mortality. The discussion went ahead to highlight obstructed labour, early age of pregnancy, multi-parity and unsafe abortion as some of the causes of maternal mortality and morbidity.
The case of unsafe abortion was dealt upon with emphasis being played on the fact that abortion is said to be safe when it is being carried out by a medical personnel using the correct equipment and procedures and in a sanitary location, any other form of termination of a pregnancy is an unsafe abortion and should not be encouraged by any young person. Some myths about abortions were discussed and dispelled and the youths told that there must be effective counseling for every youth to make an informed decision as pertaining to conception and seeking abortions.
The responsibilities of youth boys and girls were listed as: arming themselves with correct information on available facilities for management of pregnancy and its complications, being able to exercise the sexual and reproductive rights to remove barriers which may be cultural, social and religious, educating their peers and community members on the need for appropriate care.
The youth sexuality Institute of the 3rd Africa conference on sexual health and rights kicked off yesterday with the following sessions: Defining the key terms and concept: sex, sexuality, gender, sexual health and rights; Status of youth sexual health and rights in Africa 1: what are the issues of concern and Status of youth Health and Rights in Africa 11: Progress made and further actions required.
By Nnenna Ike
“I once had a friend who died. Initially we joked with her saying she was going fat. But after we were told she was dead, we later learnt that she was pregnant and went to the chemist to get some drugs. It was these drugs that she took that made her die.”
These are some of the observations made by some of the youth delegates at the youth sexuality Institute of the 3rd African Conference on Sexual Health and Rights. The fact that a selection of youths around Africa were admitted ever knowing pregnant woman who had complications of pregnancy and had adverse effect at childbirth is a pointer that the state of maternal, newborn and child health in Africa and Nigeria in particular leaves more to be desired.
The vibrant discussion was moderated by Dr Lucy Idoko of the UNFPA Abuja office at the second session of the Youth Sexual Institute of the Conference yesterday in a presentation titled ‘Maternal mortality and morbidity and the youth’. In order to mitigate the high rate of maternal mortality and morbidity, youths should have a firm grasp of the causes of maternal mortality. The discussion went ahead to highlight obstructed labour, early age of pregnancy, multi-parity and unsafe abortion as some of the causes of maternal mortality and morbidity.
The case of unsafe abortion was dealt upon with emphasis being played on the fact that abortion is said to be safe when it is being carried out by a medical personnel using the correct equipment and procedures and in a sanitary location, any other form of termination of a pregnancy is an unsafe abortion and should not be encouraged by any young person. Some myths about abortions were discussed and dispelled and the youths told that there must be effective counseling for every youth to make an informed decision as pertaining to conception and seeking abortions.
The responsibilities of youth boys and girls were listed as: arming themselves with correct information on available facilities for management of pregnancy and its complications, being able to exercise the sexual and reproductive rights to remove barriers which may be cultural, social and religious, educating their peers and community members on the need for appropriate care.
The youth sexuality Institute of the 3rd Africa conference on sexual health and rights kicked off yesterday with the following sessions: Defining the key terms and concept: sex, sexuality, gender, sexual health and rights; Status of youth sexual health and rights in Africa 1: what are the issues of concern and Status of youth Health and Rights in Africa 11: Progress made and further actions required.
By Nnenna Ike
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
