If you have something to say...
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If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
Earlier this month, Africa gave the world some very good news. The Economist magazine reported that the continent as a whole had experienced some of the steepest drops in child mortality ever seen anywhere.
While celebrated on various calendar dates, with distinctive names, a range of traditions and tied to diverse histories, most countries reserve a day to pay homage to moms. But in some countries, being a mom is much more difficult than in others.
Nearly one out of every six African-American babies in the United States is born premature. In Newark, New Jersey it's one in five. I am a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, and every day I see women who are at risk of delivering early.
If you are a parent or young athlete, do you know how much training in sports injury prevention your coaches have had? How do you help coach a child to fewer sports injuries?
"With a really good education, you have a much broader view of the world. Well-educated people can seek help for themselves. They can help others. Educated people can make their own choices about their governments. And certainly for women, an education allows you to understand your rights."
Among so many world leaders and high-level representatives from civil society and academia, I felt a sense of critical mass beginning to form in the fight to end global hunger.
Over the last two decades, the World Bank report indicates that we are only one-third of the way toward meeting our maternal mortality targets.
At UNFPA, we work to make every pregnancy wanted, every child birth safe and to give every young person the opportunity to realize their full potential. Today, there are 500 million adolescent girls in the developing world. Their full potential has yet to be fulfilled.
The International Museum of Women (IMOW) -- the world's only online museum dedicated exclusively to women's issues -- recently launched a year-long art exhibit on maternal health. Motherhood Around the Globe (MAMA) is a diverse multi-media portrayal of the joys and struggles of motherhood from artists who celebrate the universality of motherhood through their creative and insightful depictions.
This is a story about high infant and maternal mortality among indigenous women and their newborns. Part of this story is about how young women living in desperate situations learn to deal with those situations by helping others.
This Mother's Day, we are offering cards on our site to fund surgeries for women in need. In honor of mothers all over the world who work hard to take care of their families each day, Samahope enables anyone to give the gift of saving a woman's life.
As I travel the world, I am struck by the shared values and desires of people globally. We all want a better life for the next generation. We all want kids who are healthy, educated and presented with the chance for a better life.
The confidence and courage of the mothers of Uganda was so inspiring -- to come together as a village and rely on each other's business skills for success was a valuable reminder of the power of a mother.
I have spent the last two years in Haiti, and the sound of rain is forever changed. Where the sound of rain once brought comfort, it now brings worry that comes with my intimate knowledge of what rain means these days in Haiti.
On International Day of the Midwife on May 5, our short film "What I Want Is Simple", is airing on national television and radio in Tanzania.
Maternal mortality is a moral tragedy, and there are many factors that contribute to it, including health and cultural barriers. A new resolution calls upon the United Methodist Church to take action to support maternal health and family planning through advocacy and direct services.
For expectant mothers, what makes Chagas disease especially harmful is that it can be passed to their unborn children, causing highly lethal congenital infections. However, few obstetricians are trained to recognize the signs of Chagas disease.
Compassion fatigue has an antidote. True, we can become weary of the seemingly infinite number of problems plaguing our fellow humans. But that same interconnectedness allows us do more than just learn about what's happening around the world. We can learn from it.
In the United States, we can practically start planning our kids' birthdays from the day they come home from the hospital; deaths in childhood are quite rare. In Ghana, though, you can't take a child's fifth birthday for granted.
A wholesome mid-day meal, served in schools, helps break the cycle of poverty and helps children to become productive global citizens.
