In giving life, women face deadly risks

In Niger, a woman gives birth to an average of nearly eight children. Countries like Uganda, Mali and Somalia are close behind, with an average of six to seven children per woman. With every pregnancy and birth, a woman’s risk of dying increases.

Numbers Aside, India’s Newborns Face Challenges

India

 Usha Kumar’s wails sounded like the cries of a wounded animal, guttural and wrenching, her screams seeping through the corridor of Kasturba Hospital in Delhi, until, finally, mercifully, Ms. Kumar pushed out her baby boy.

Scheme aims to reduce neonatal death rate

India

 For the first time ever, India has decided to roll out a newborn care scheme that will ensure Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) visit the homes of new mothers six times in 42 days to encourage safe practices and early detection and free referral of sick babies.

Helping Newborns Breathe, No Spanking Required

Many babies, especially premature ones, have trouble breathing. They can sometimes be jump-started by massage (which replaced the old tradition of smacking a baby’s bottom to make it cry) or with a neonatal respirator.

Helping Babies Breathe Alliance Receives USAID Partnership Award

Award presented during a day-long Partnership Forum on the Strategic Value of Connecting Business and Development that USAID is hosting as part of the Agency’s 50th anniversary.

“Helping Babies Breathe” Awarded USAID’s Excellence Award

USAID’s 2011 Global Development Alliance Excellence Award presented to “Helping Babies Breathe (HBB)

Improving the Outlook for Babies in Zanzibar

Three times a day, 27-year-old Omari Ali breaks from his job repairing cars in Amani Freshi, a suburb of Zanzibar City, Zanzibar, and heads to the local health center to care for his newborn twin sons. 

Pakistan: Newborns at Increased Risk

Pakistan

 A newborn baby dies every four minutes in Pakistan. It was not always so. With a sound population policy set out in the 1950s, Pakistan was second only to Sri Lanka in infant and neonatal survival rates during the 1960s and 1970s (compared to Bangladesh, India, Iran and Nepal).

Lebanon bucking global breast-feeding trend

In the past few decades, public opinion in many countries has swung heavily in favor of the “breast is best” approach – new mothers are encouraged, and perhaps pressured, to breast- rather than bottle-feed their infants.

Afghanistan midwives tackle world’s highest maternal mortality rate

Afghanistan

A British GP training midwives in Afghanistan has spoken of the daily challenges facing her team as they work to save the lives of mothers and their children in a remote part of the country.