maternal-mortality Archives - Humanosphere

maternal-mortality

Seattle parties to help ‘Mobile Moms’ in Timor-Leste |

Melinda Gates was there. Supermodel Christy Turlington was there.

So were a thousand or two others, Seattle’s young humanitarians who started a Saturday evening bash with talks about maternal health but ended it with loud, thumping dance music.

Tom Paulson

Partying for a purpose at Agency 2012

This annual Seattle do-gooder event at McCaw Hall, sponsored by the Washington Global Health Alliance and formerly known as Party With A Purpose, is aimed at raising awareness among young people of critical issues in global health and also raising funds for a specific cause — all combined with some serious partying.

Now called Agency, this year’s event sought to educate the glam crowd of young do-gooders (and a few not-so-glam older folks like me) about the threat of maternal mortality and some of the efforts underway to increase safety of childbirth in poor countries.

The Seattle organization Health Alliance International, which recently launched a Mobile Moms text messaging service aimed at improving maternal health in Timor-Leste, is the beneficiary of the funds raised by the event’s ticket sales (which looked to be at least $40,000. Last year’s fund-raising focus was on the Infectious Disease Research Institute‘s TB work, which raised $34,000).

Tom Paulson

Susan Thompson of HAI's Timor-Leste program

“The idea is to use mobile phones, through text messaging, to get them the information they need for healthy births,” said Susan Thompson, head of the Timor-Leste program for HAI. The long-term goal, Thompson said, is to use this project to further her organization’s broader aim of strengthening the tiny country’s overall health system.

Because of the ubiquity of cell phones in even poor communities (Thompson said they did a survey and discovered 69% of the women had phones, and nearly all texted regularly), the idea is to test in Timor-Leste if reproductive health messaging using text messages sent to pregnant women will improve health outcomes.

“So-called ‘mHealth’ projects are very popular but we need to determine if they really work,” Thompson said.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Agency, Health Alliance International, maternal-mortality, Melinda Gates, Party with a Purpose, Washington Global Health Alliance

July 10, 2012 | 11:46 AM | By Tom Paulson |

Melinda Gates says family planning should not be controversial |

By Keith Seinfeld, KPLU

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Chris Kleponis, AFP/Getty Images

Melinda Gates

Melinda Gates is promoting access to contraceptives around the world, and urging everyone to believe it’s not a controversial step.

She’s co-hosting a global summit on Wednesday in London, along with the British government.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation hopes to overcome religious and cultural resistance by saying birth control is simply one option that women want.

The foundation says simply: “There is no controversy.” And, it has created a website called No-Controversy.com, where women can share stories of how birth control changed their lives.

Enter the Catholic Church

However, when the Catholic Church and some Muslim groups are actively campaigning against it, and when some U.S. states are blocking all funding for Planned Parenthood, saying birth control is not controversial might seem implausible.

Here’s how Melinda Gates explained her position, as a Catholic, on CNN last week:

“To me the contraceptive piece is not controversial. My roots, part of why I do what I do in the foundation, comes from that incredible social justice upbringing I had, this belief that all lives, all lives have equal value.”

Gates made a similar point on the Colbert Report, telling Stephen Colbert, “We’ve made it controversial in the United States, and it doesn’t need to be. In fact 90 percent of Americans say they find contraceptives morally acceptable. But, because we’ve made it controversial, it’s come off the global health agenda.” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, contraception, family planning, maternal-mortality, Melinda Gates

July 10, 2012 | 11:45 AM | By Tom Paulson |

Contraception could cut global maternal death toll by one-third |

The New York Times reports:

A new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University shows that fulfilling unmet contraception demand by women in developing countries could reduce global maternal mortality by nearly a third, a potentially great improvement for one of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

The study, published on Tuesday in The Lancet, a British science journal, comes ahead of a major family planning conference in London organized by the British government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that is an attempt to refocus attention on the issue. It has faded from the international agenda in recent years, overshadowed by efforts to combat AIDS and other infectious diseases, as well as by ideological battles.

FILED UNDER: Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, contraception, family planning, maternal-mortality

March 17, 2011 | 8:45 AM | By Tom Paulson |

Christy Turlington on maternal health & cause celebrities |

I caught up with supermodel Christy Turlington Wednesday night as she walked from the Andra Hotel over to the Cinerama Theater for the Seattle screening of her documentary on the global problem of maternal deaths and disabilities caused in childbirth: “No Woman No Cry.”

Tom Paulson

Supermodel Christy Turlington chats with UW supermetrician Chris Murray and communications director Jill Oviatt

Turlington met with a number of local luminaries and experts on matters of global health, like the UW’s Chris Murray (who minutes before closed out a major global health meeting. See Horton post below), at a VIP reception sponsored by the World Affairs Council and the Washington Global Health Alliance. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, celebrities, Chris Murray, Christy Turlington, maternal-mortality, women's health

March 14, 2011 | 3:53 PM | By Tom Paulson |

Number-crunchers take a hard look at global health |

Institute for Health Metrics Evaluation

Crunching numbers, fighting disease

Hoo-boy, where do I begin trying to write about a bunch of people who mostly talk numbers and statistics?

How about we start with the fact that much of the time in global health it can seem like we are punching at perceived shadows in a dark room?

Oh, and also it can be a matter of life and death.

That is, global health projects are launched aimed at fighting a particular disease or problem based on the assumption that, first, it’s clear what the problem is and, second, it’s clear how to solve it. Got a problem with malaria? Give everyone a bednet. HIV? Just give everyone drugs. Malnutrition? Food ….

Of course, most of us know (even without knowing all the details) that nothing in life is ever that simple. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Chris Murray, health metrics, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, malaria, maternal-mortality

March 8, 2011 | 2:15 PM | By Tom Paulson |

A century of women’s days: What to celebrate and what not to |

Flickr, Prachatai

International Women's Day Thailand

Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, a celebration of women born out of the early 20th-century labor and suffragette movements.

Given its original socialist worker underpinnings, it’s perhaps no surprise this day is more widely celebrated in Europe and elsewhere than it has been in the U.S. (where even saying the “S” word seems to cause people to twitch.) Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Justice, human rights, International Womens Day, maternal-mortality, women's health

September 18, 2010 | 7:53 PM | By Tom Paulson |

WHO Responds on Maternal Deaths Data |

I wrote last week about the World Health Organization revising down its numbers on maternal mortality, noting that the UN agency had arrived at basically the same place as some Seattle-based researchers roundly criticized for previously challenging WHO’s higher estimates.

Basically, it was good news. Maternal deaths are down to about 350,000 annually as opposed to the previous estimate of half a million. That’s still unacceptably high, of course, but it is progress.

Last spring, the New York Times quoted the editor of the Lancet, Richard Horton, saying he had been pressured “to delay or hold publication” of the Seattle group’s findings because some feared the lower numbers would hurt fund-raising and cause “potential political damage to maternal advocacy campaigns.”

WHO’s Colin Mathers was gracious enough to respond, explaining that they arrived at the same place as Seattle’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation but by a different path, and with a few variations.

“Maternal mortality is one of the most difficult indicators to measure,” says Mathers. Causes of maternal death are often incorrectly reported, he says, and health institutions are often loathe to report them because of the “stigma” of having high rates of maternal deaths.

Mathers’ complete response is detailed and long. For you data geeks, who want to read the whole thing, please Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Politics, Science, health metrics, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, maternal-mortality, World Health Organization

September 15, 2010 | 12:15 PM | By Tom Paulson |

World Health Organization Eats Crow, Cuts Maternal Death Numbers |

WHO

World Health Organization

The World Health Organization made great progress in the global campaign to reduce maternal mortality today.

The WHO has cut its estimate of worldwide maternal mortality by more than a third — from about half a million deaths to about 350,000 deaths per year.

The UN Agency didn’t make much of a public announcement but it did issue a detailed report. However, it’s still not clear based on a cursory reading why some similar findings earlier rejected are now accepted.

Oh, if only we could so easily reduce all causes of death, disease and poverty.

Numbers in global health can sometimes flow like the tide. Continue reading →