[afro-nets] Improving the health of mothers and babies, id21 insights health 11

["Tom Barker" <T.Barker@ids.ac.uk>]

Improving the health of mothers and babies: breaking through health system constraints
id21 insights health 11, August 2007

Improving maternal health remains the most elusive of the Millennium Development Goals. Every minute, at least one woman dies from pregnancy-related causes: 99 percent of these are in developing countries. The majority of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, and are avoidable through using standard interventions and health care which all pregnant women and their newborn babies need.

The latest issue of id21 insights health is guest edited by Zoë Matthews, School of Social Sciences, Southampton University (UK), with contributions including:  

	*	Malay Kanti Mridha and Marge Koblinsky discuss the reasons behind the key constraint to progress: the world's acute lack of maternal health workers.
	*	Louise Hulton reviews the challenges from weak infrastructure to the development of effective maternal health care services.
	*	Gwyneth Lewis reminds us that poor provision of care, although far too common, can also coexist with the provision of 'too much' care.
	*	Jane Falkingham highlights how health care costs associated with childbirth can be catastrophic for poor families.
	*	Helga Fogstad looks to the future of extending maternity care to all women in the 75 countries that suffer 97 percent of the world's maternal deaths.
	*	Jeremy Shiffman considers the factors that influence political actors to provide long-term sustainable investment in maternal health.

Read the whole issue
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This issue of id21 insights health is free to read online at http://www.id21.org/insights/insights-h11/index.html or as a PDF file http://www.id21.org/insights/insights-h11/pdf.html and in print. For print copies and a free subscription to future issues of id21 insights health please email your full postal address to id21@ids.ac.uk quoting "id21 insights health 11" and stating how many copies you would like to receive (all id21 publications are free of charge). Back issues are also available - see http://www.id21.org/insights/index.html 

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--
Tom Barker
mailto:T.Barker@ids.ac.uk