HEALTH-BOLIVIA: Childbirth Still a Gamble, Despite Care Efforts

While the birth of a child generally represents joy and life, in Bolivia, new motherhood is all too often plagued with fear, uncertainty and even death of mothers and newborns, report organisations dedicated to maternal and child health.

HEALTH-ARGENTINA: Women’s Care Blossoms at the Desert’s Edge

The village bumps up abruptly against the plateau, framed by a halo of ochre peaks. In this last outpost before the freezing desert in northwestern Argentina, "perseverant women" are working hard to foster development that does not compromise community identities.

HEALTH-CUBA: Abortion Competes With Contraceptives

Many women in Cuba resort to abortion, 40 years after it was decriminalised, as though it were just another contraceptive method. Some even prefer it to condoms, the pill or intrauterine devices (IUDs), without giving a thought to the risks involved or the ethical aspects.

BOLIVIA: Wanted – Healthcare Adapted To Indigenous Cultures

The alarming state of health in Bolivia is related to the dominant healthcare model, which ignores the society's traditional cultures, said Health Minister Nila Heredia, who is attending the World Health Assembly in this Swiss city.

HEALTH-AFGHANISTAN: Good Tidings on the TB Front

For once, Afghanistan can report good news on the public health front. The country has been selected for a special award for its effective fight against tuberculosis (TB), which claims 20,000 lives every year, the majority of them women, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced.

JAPAN: Foster Parents in New Role as Population Slumps

A government plan to boost Japan's fledgling foster parent system as a means of stemming the population slide has revived the social debate on abortion and sex education for teenagers.

HEALTH-KENYA: The Little Pill That Could

Misoprostol. It's not exactly a household name as far as drugs are concerned; however, it has the potential to improve - and even save - thousands of women's lives in Kenya.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Anti-Abortion Laws a “Silent War Waged Against Women”

Calls for abortion laws across Africa to be revised have dominated the first days of a meeting in Ethiopia – the ‘Regional Consultation on Unsafe Abortion in Africa’.

HEALTH-ANGOLA: The Dangerous Profession of Motherhood

Walking into the Angolan capital's main maternity hospital, the first thing that hits any visitor is the stench: a nauseating combination of blood and excrement. After a short while, the stomach settles and the eyes adjust to the poor light in the Maternidade Lucrecia Paim; then, the true wretchedness of the grey walls and broken windows begins to sink in.

JAPAN: Wooing Women as Birth Rates Drop

Gender equality has been a distant dream in Japan but a drastic national population decline is forcing the government to take steps to help women - if only to encourage them to have more children.

PAKISTAN: Quake Survivors Need Doctors, Nurses

Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel are urgently needed to help prevent outbreaks of epidemics in quake-hit areas of Pakistan, warns the World Health Organisation (WHO).

HEALTH-BRAZIL: NGOs Push to Avoid Preventable Maternal Deaths

The death of a woman in childbirth is a horrific blow to a family preparing for what is meant to be a joyous event, the arrival of a new life. In Brazil, the loss is made even more painful by the fact that over 90 percent of these deaths are preventable.

HEALTH-BRAZIL: Well on the Way to Eliminating Maternal Transmission of HIV

Brazil is pushing ahead with its widely-praised anti-AIDS programme by setting itself the goal of reducing vertical transmission of HIV, the AIDS virus, to less than one percent within three years.

PHILIPPINES: ‘Church, a Goliath Against Reproductive Health’

When Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo told the U.N. General Assembly recently to "respect the deep Catholicism of the Filipino people" and said that natural family planning is more effective than artificial means like condoms, Filipino activists reacted with disbelief, others with anger.

WOMEN: What If Not Enough Are Around

A recommendation by a British parliamentary committee to allow a couple to select the sex of their child under certain circumstances is leading to new fears in Asian and African communities.

HEALTH-KENYA: Many Abortions, Too Little Contraception

Dubbed the "babies in bags" scandal, the discovery of 15 foetuses last year near a river in Nairobi horrified Kenya - and drew government assurances that illegal abortions would be brought to a halt.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Ensuring that “X” Marks the Gender-Friendly Spot

On the face of it, women in Kenya have a powerful tool at their disposal for dealing with politicians who fumble over the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), an international set of objectives that tackle gender inequality, amongst other issues.

ARGENTINA: The Right to Give Birth Naturally

An original media campaign in Argentina is aimed at raising women's awareness on their right to be accompanied in the delivery room, and to give birth in whatever position is most comfortable for them and without unnecessary medical interventions.

ARGENTINA: Promising Signs in Ongoing Struggle for Safe, Legal Abortion

Twenty-year-old Romina Tejerina is scheduled to stand trial in June in Argentina, and could very likely be sentenced to life in prison for stabbing to death her newborn daughter.

HEALTH-NEPAL: Women Volunteers Deliver

Shova Baral deftly tilts back the small boy's head and with her other hand squeezes drops from a red, teardrop-shaped capsule into his gaping mouth. Her colleague Ishwori Baral places a chewable tablet inside.

HEALTH-NIGER: A Hundred Dollars Goes a Long Way to Ending Genital Mutilation

"It’s not easy to give up a profession passed down to you by your parents that you’ve been at for years. But once you become aware of the grave harm you do others in this job, you have to quit," says Salmou Himadou.