HEALTH-KENYA: Do Safer Births Require a Break With Tradition?

"I use a razor, scissors and thread," says traditional midwife Peris Machanja, describing part of her work in delivering a baby. "Sometimes I use gloves, which I disinfect to use for another job – that is, if they are not torn. If they are, I try to get new ones."

ARGENTINA: Systematic Mistreatment of Low-Income Pregnant Women

"If you liked the fun part, put up with this part now!" and "Don't shout, put a pillow over your mouth" are a couple of the less cruel remarks by nurses and doctors heard by low-income women about to give birth in public hospitals in the northeastern Argentine province of Santa Fe.

HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Risks to Motherhood Can Be Deadly

Writhing in pain and cringing deeper into the ‘charpoy', a bed made from rope, to hide the shame and her labour, she finally gave birth to a beautiful daughter out in the wilderness.

PAKISTAN: Looking at Maternal Health Through Gendered Lenses

After more than four years of marriage, 26-year old Meeran Harchand finally got pregnant only to give birth to a dead child.

WOMEN: In Bed with Bush for Four More Years

Four more years of President George W. Bush in the White House will pose a major obstacle for efforts to promote sexual and reproductive health in Latin America, according to Monty Eustace, the president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR).

WOMEN: Contraception, the Missing Link in the Millennium Development Goals

A woman who only has children if and when she wants to will be better able to work and to cover her family's needs in terms of food, education and health care.

DEVELOPMENT: Sexual and Reproductive Rights Missing in Millennium Goals

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) should incorporate sexual and reproductive rights, which were ignored in the targets and indicators adopted by the international community in 2000, along with the recommendations of U.N. conferences on population and women.

HEALTH-NIGER: Enlisting Men in the Fight Against Fistula

When poverty and traditional practices collide in Niger, the results can be ruinous – particularly for teenage girls.

HEALTH: Latin America Cannot Meet Millennium Development Goals Alone

Latin America will not achieve the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) for health indicators unless its governments demonstrate the necessary political will and the industrialised North provides the region with more support, according to the executive secretary of the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), José Luis Machinea.

DEVELOPMENT: Poor Nations Missing Health Goals, Warns Bank

The World Bank warned Thursday that millions of children and hundreds of thousands of pregnant women are still dying every year worldwide despite a high-profile global pact that promised to sharply cut those deaths by the year 2015.

HEALTH-KENYA: Contraceptives? You’re Lucky if You Get Them

Kenya's government has again been criticised for its failure to provide enough contraceptives for its citizens - this at a two-day conference on maternal deaths and unsafe abortions that was held in the capital, Nairobi.

ARGENTINA: The Struggle for the Right of Same-Sex Couples to Adopt

Who is the mommy and who is the daddy for children adopted by same-sex couples? Does being raised in this kind of family affect the emotional and psychological development of these children?

DEVELOPMENT: Poor Countries Footing Reproductive Bill

Developed countries are failing to live up to their commitments to fund sexual and reproductive health care leaving poorer countries to pick up the bill, says a new UN report released Wednesday.

HEALTH-ASIA: Legal Abortion Does Not Necessarily Mean Safe Abortions

The legalisation of abortion is necessary but not sufficient to put an end to the myriad deaths and injuries caused by unsafe abortions, says a study on six Asian countries released Wednesday in the British capital.