Women's Health

HEALTH: To Fight AIDS, Fight Gender Inequality

By Marcela Valente
Under the banner that gender inequality is one of the main drivers of the spread of AIDS, women from around the world are uniting to demand a stop to the epidemic among all females -- whether adults or girls.
Many Liberian women are uncomfortable with being attended by male midwives. Can this resistance be overcome? What are the alternatives? Credit: Bonnie Allen/IPS

LIBERIA: Men in Testing New Role as Midwives

By Bonnie Allen
Henry Teh gently slides down a blue hospital sheet to expose the bare belly of a pregnant woman. As he pokes around to feel the position of the foetus, the midwife-in-training knows he is breaking tradition and changing the face of obstetric care in Liberia.
Rosmilda and Liceth Quiñones on a visit to Bogotá. Credit: Helda Martínez/IPS

COLOMBIA: Midwives Seek Legal Recognition, Respect

By Helda Martínez
In Colombia, western medicine has nearly succeeded in pushing midwives -- "parteras" or "comadronas," as they are known in Spanish -- out of existence. But some tenacious practitioners are pushing for a law to formalise the role of midwife as a health worker.
A Marubo woman has her blood pressure checked. Credit: Courtesy of Edmar Chaperman/FUNASA

More Than 200 Ways of Becoming a Mother

By Fabiana Frayssinet
"You can only have one mother," as the saying goes, but in Brazil there are 215 ways of becoming a mother, one for each of the ethnic groups in this South American country. Promoting maternal health while respecting cultural traditions is a major health challenge.

Midwives vs. Doctors in U.S. Maternal Mortality Crisis

By IPS Correspondents
"I was baking a cake when my contractions were two minutes apart," Kristine says, her voice warm with memory, "not in a hospital, holding onto a bedside somewhere screaming."
A pregnant woman in Timor-Leste's national hospital, where UNFPA recently supplied child delivery equipment to reduce maternal mortality. Credit: UN Photo/Martine Perret

Making 2010 a Turning Point for Women’s Health

By Thalif Deen
As the international community readies to commemorate World Population Day Sunday, the United Nations is reviewing the state of the world's women - and how they stack up against the risks of maternal mortality and the lack of universal access to reproductive health.
Youngsters get frank discussion of sexuality at the National Science Museum, but some fear it might be 'too much' for them. Credit: Lynette Lee Corporal/IPS

THAILAND: Sexuality 101 Exhibit Says It Straight

By IPS Correspondents
Teenage boys gape at a coloured photograph of a vagina, while girls give embarrassed smiles as they watch a cartoon that showed penises 'talking' about masturbation. Young girls crowd around a display panel about love and relationships, as a boy embraces a female mannequin with all his might in order to measure the strength of his hug.
Pakistan's population policy is still waiting final approval. Credit: Fahim Siddiqi/IPS

PAKISTAN: More Action, Less Words, Needed to Ease Population Bulge

By Zofeen Ebrahim
While militancy, power outages and skyrocketing food prices hog the limelight in parliamentary and media discussions in Pakistan, health experts warn that it is a neglected issue – the population bulge – that will prove to be a more insidious problem.
Nurse at Kangatotha sees to a patient. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

KENYA: Tradition an Obstacle to Maternal Health

By Isaiah Esipisu
Their kangas and heavy bead necklaces are the only colour in an arid landscape. The weary women waiting outside the Kangatotha dispensary have walked up to 50 kilometres to receive food aid; now they will walk home carrying their share.

LATIN AMERICA: Majority Favours Legalising Abortion – But Not for All Cases

By Daniela Estrada
The majority of people surveyed in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Nicaragua are in favour of legalising therapeutic abortion, but not all forms of elective abortion, according to a study by the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO).
Chan Theary, executive director of the Reproductive and Child Health Alliance, an NGO that supports a remote health centre in Cambodia. Credit: Irwin Loy/IPS

DEVELOPMENT: Cambodia Struggles to Reduce Maternal Deaths

By Irwin Loy
For Chan Theary, a remote, mountainous stretch of land in western Cambodia encapsulates the uphill struggle this South-east Asian nation faces in reducing the alarming number of women who die during pregnancy.
Oriana López at the offices of the Fondo de Aborto para la Justicia Social MARÍA. Credit: Daniela Pastrana/IPS

MEXICO: Extending the Reach of Safe Abortion

By Daniela Pastrana
By 5:00 AM, dozens of women are already lined up outside of this clinic in the Mexican capital. Most come with their mothers, sisters, husbands, friends or boyfriends. A few show up alone.
President Sebastián Piñera and three expectant mothers at installation of presidential commission. Credit: Chilean President's Office

CHILE: Maternity Leave – Longer, or for All Working Mothers?

By Daniela Estrada
"In Chile, women carry the entire burden of maternity," says teacher Fabiola Quiñones, who applauds the government's proposal to extend pre- and post- natal leave to six months -- but only if all new mothers who work can have that option.
Congressman Joseph Crowley and Fanta, who escaped FGM with the support of her parents Credit: Beatrice Paez/IPS

U.S. Bill Would Outlaw FGM “Holidays”

By Beatrice Paez
The U.S. currently lags behind several Western European countries in closing a legislative loophole banning the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) beyond its borders to protect U.S. citizens and residents. But this may soon change.

Keeping the Pressure on to Invest in Women’s Health

By IPS Correspondents
Men, women, NGOs, governments, the Gates Foundation. Everyone agrees – women are awesome. More importantly, protecting the health of the people that make up more than half of the human population and do far more than half of the work to sustain it should be everyone's priority.
The operating theatre at St Mary's hospital in Rehoboth, Namibia, where women were allegedly coerced into accepting sterilisation. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

Are Namibian Women Being Forcibly Sterilised?*

By Servaas van den Bosch
A landmark court case, alleging that HIV-positive women were forcibly sterilised in Namibian state hospitals begins in Windhoek's High Court on Jun. 1. Human rights groups claim the practice has continued long after the authorities were notified.

JAPAN: Women Changing the Face of Politics, Slowly but Almost Surely

By Suvendrini Kakuchi
Junko Hamada, 59, is now in her 12th year as an elected member of the city council of Isehara, a sprawling bed town west of Tokyo with an estimated population of 150,000.

INDIA: Rising Use of Emergency Contraceptives Raises Alarm

By Manipadma Jena
When Sunita Sanyal (last name changed) complained of intense headache and vomiting, her mother presumed it was just pre-examination jitters. After all, Sunita’s business management finals were just a week away.

PAKISTAN: TB-Afflicted Women Struggle to Overcome Social Stigma

By IPS Correspondents
Abdul Wahid’s wife had been unwell for two years, showing symptoms of a chronic infectious disease such as prolonged coughing, before she finally decided to see a doctor.

PERU: Glass of Milk Half Empty

By Ángel Páez
The "Glass of Milk" Programme, created in 1985 in Peru to provide a nutritional supplement for the most vulnerable population, specifically children up to six years old and pregnant and nursing women, is undermined by poor oversight, according to an audit by the Comptroller General's Office.

World Bank Boosts Commitment to Lower Maternal Mortality

By Jim Lobe
The World Bank intends to ramp up spending on family-planning and related initiatives to reduce maternal mortality, improve reproductive health, and reduce fertility rates in nearly 60 developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new five-year plan released by the Bank here this week.
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