The maternal mortality ratio is unacceptably high in Africa. Forty per cent of all pregnancy-related deaths worldwide occur in Africa. On average, over 7 women die per 1,000 live births. About 22,000 African women die each year from unsafe abortion, reflecting a high unmet need for contraception. Contraceptive use among women in union varies from 50 per cent in the southern sub-region to less than 10 per cent in middle and western Africa" UNFPA

Early and unwanted childbearing, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and pregnancy-related illnesses and deaths account for a significant proportion of the burden of illness experienced by women in Africa. Gender-based violence is an influential factor negatively impacting on the sexual and reproductive health of one in every three women. Many are unable to control decisions to have sex or to negotiate safer sexual practices, placing them at great risk of disease and health complications.

According to UNAIDS, there is an estimated of 22.2 million people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan African in 2009, which represents 68% of the global HIV burden. Women are at higher risk than men to be infected by HIV, their vulnerability remains particulary high in the Sub-Saharan Africa and 76% of all HIV women in the world live in this region.

In almost all countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, the majority of people living with HIV are women, especially girls and women aged between 15-24. Not only are women more likely to become infected, they are more severely affected. Their income is likely to fall if an adult man loses his job and dies. Since formal support to women are very limited, they may have to give up some income-genrating activities or sacrifice school to take care of the sick relatives.

For more information on HIV/AIDS and Reproductive health, please visit the following websites:

SOURCE: Medicins Sans Frontiers

“When I went into labor, I started making my way to the nearest health center, but then I felt one of my two babies coming, so I spread my clothes under a mango tree and gave birth on my own,” says Musa Yahyah, an Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) patient in Sierra Leone. 

SOURCE: UNFPA

BURUNTUMA, Guinea-Bissau – “In all four of my deliveries I had a hemorrhage,” said 39-year-old Djenabu Sano, reflecting on the consequences of female genital mutilation on the births of her children.

SOURCE: Daily Trust

Medical professionals have called on the federal government to take urgent action to cut down the rising number of women and babies dying due to complications during childbirth.

SOURCE: AllAfrica

The mental health of pregnant women in Zambia, like in much of Africa, is often overlooked. But it's important to diagnose postpartum depression for the health of both the mother and the child.

SOURCE: Nyasa Times

Medical experts are sounding an alarm following revelations that nearly 3,000 women in the country die due to cervical cancer every year, putting the country at the highest cervical cancer prevalence rate in the world.

SOURCE: Capital News

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 29- United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has launched ‘Oky Kenya’, an adapted version of the world’s first-period tracker offline app, specifically designed for girls living in low- and middle-income countries like Kenya.

SOURCE: Nigeria Health Watch

Access to family planning (FP) services empowers women and girls by enabling them to have agency over their bodies. They can better plan a pregnancy and make more informed decisions about childbirth, allowing them to chart the course of their future according to their desires and ambitions.

Source: TheEastAfrican

More needs to be done for Tanzania and the rest of the world to end the Aids public health threat by 2030, a newly launched global HIV/Aids report shows.

Although Tanzania has had a positive impact in fighting HIV/Aids, the new report reveals that the key populations in the country still lag behind when it comes to testing and treatment. Launched in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, the new report titled ‘Dangerous inequalities’ shows early testing, prevention and treatment measures have slowed down, hence Aids-related deaths and new HIV/Aids cases are rising.   

Available data shows there are over 4.9 million people living with HIV/Aids in Tanzania while only 1.3 million are on treatment. According to UNAIDS data, Tanzania has over the past ten 10 years consistently reduced new HIV infections and reduced Aids-related deaths by 46.6 percent and 50 percent respectively. Prof Tumaini Nagu, Tanzania’s Chief Medical Officer, noted that although the country has made progress, more needs to be done since with the new report findings, it is evident that some key populations — including adolescence girls — have been left behind.

"50 percent is a good progress but we haven't really made progress when it comes to adolescent girls, which is actually what our strategic health plan requires us to do. That is why we are currently targeting them together with other groups such as migrants, fisheries, people living in rural areas for we cannot fight the epidemic disease with one-size-fits-all kind of solution," she said.

On her part, Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and Aids, (UNAIDS), commended Dodoma’s efforts in the fight against HIV/Aids. “Tanzania is the leader, a strong performer in the fight against this disease. The country has succeeded in reducing new infections by almost 50 percent and successful treatment scale up has led to over 50 percent reduction in the number of Aids-related deaths,” said Ms Byanyima.

New infections rising

“The world is not on track to end the Aids pandemic.  New infections are rising and Aids deaths are continuing in too many communities. Inequalities are holding us back,” added Ms Byabyima. The report shows that gender inequalities, inequalities faced by key populations and inequalities between children and adults have had negative impacts on Aids response by countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls and young women are three times more likely to get HIV than their male counterparts, according to the report.

“The world will not be able to defeat Aids while reinforcing patriarchy. We need to address theintersecting inequalities women face. The only effective route map to ending Aids, achieving the sustainable development goals and ensuring health, rights and shared prosperity, is a feminist route map. Women’s rights organisations and movements are already on the frontline doing this bold work. Leaders need to support them and learn from them,” added Ms Byabyima

Source:NewsMedical

Women in sub-Saharan Africa continue to have an elevated risk of death following childbirth long after the 42-day postpartum limit the WHO uses to define pregnancy-related deaths, a new analysis shows.

Researchers analyzed data from 12 sub-Saharan African countries to examine whether the 42-day definition accurately captures deaths following childbirth.

The analysis found that while the risk of death fell substantially throughout the 42-day postpartum period (relative to a comparison period of 12-17 months postpartum) the risk of death was still estimated to be 20% higher from 42 days to four months following childbirth. This has major policy implications for the improvement of maternal health in sub-Saharan Africa and other low- and middle-income countries.

The team included researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at LSHTM and the Kenya Medical Research Institute-Center for Global Health Research. The research is published in The Lancet Global Health.

It's vital that we have up-to-date evidence and action to make childbirth safer for every woman. To measure pregnancy-related deaths, there must be a time limit on the definition but it is concerning that the risk of death remains 20% higher from 42 days until around four months after childbirth. In light of this, we are calling for the WHO to extend the 42-day postpartum limit currently used in the definition of pregnancy-related deaths. Our results also suggest that national and international guidelines for postpartum care should include visits beyond 42 days for women who experience chronic morbidity."

Ursula Gazeley, Lead Author, LSHTM

Dr Momodou Jasseh, author from MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM, said: "This demonstration of an increased risk of death for mothers beyond 42 days postpartum in Sub-Saharan Africa suggests that the true burden of pregnancy-related mortality may be substantially underestimated in the region. Unless concerned governments commit to enhancing health management information systems that generate the requisite data on maternal outcomes after 42-days postpartum, the real burden will remain elusive."

Dr Sammy Khagayi, author from the Kenya Medical Research Institute, said: "Despite the reduction in mortality around childbirth for both mothers and babies in areas with limited resources like Western Kenya, it is vital to go a step further to provide quality care for the mothers beyond the recommended postpartum period. Ante- and post-partum pregnancy monitoring would go a long way in reducing late maternal deaths. This will be achieved if we invest in data collection platforms to monitor and track women from pregnancy to 6 months postpartum."

This large, multi-country study analyzed almost 30 years' worth of data from 1991-2020, from 30 Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS), across 12 African countries. In total 647,104 births and 1,967 deaths within one year of giving birth were recorded in the HDSS.

This analysis was based on deaths after childbirth from any cause. To plan interventions and prevent deaths, the authors call for urgent further investigation on the causes of death after 42 days postpartum in low- and middle-income settings.

Limitations of the research include that HDSS data do not always include pregnancy reports and so the analysis did not include pregnancy-related deaths before childbirth, which is likely to underestimate maternal risk.

The research was funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council.

Source:africanews

Moroccan women demonstrated outside parliament in the capital, Rabat, yesterday calling for abortion to be legalised.

The protest on International Safe Abortion Day came weeks after a teenage girl, Meriem, died in a village in the centre of the country following a clandestine termination.

Abortion is illegal in Morocco and is punishable by up to five years in prison, except in cases when the woman's health is in danger.

As the activists honoured the teenager with posters saying ‘We are all Meriem’, they urged lawmakers to make the termination of pregnancy a legal option for women.

‘There are many who die every month, every year for the same reason, because of clandestine abortions, and they are not listened to, not even considered. They’re not honoured, as today we honour Meriem and those who died like her,’ said activist Sarah Benmoussa.

She added that they were also trying to create a stable and healthy environment for all other women who might find themselves in the same situation, with an unwanted pregnancy.

Having a child, the women said, must be a choice. ‘We're here today because our voices matter,’ said Khaoula, a 23-year-old journalism student, ‘Every human being should be able to control their own body.’

Call for law to change

Faced with hundreds of clandestine abortions performed daily, in 2015 the Moroccan government debated the need to review the legislation.

An official commission recommended that the termination of pregnancies be legalised in special circumstances, but no reforms followed, despite lobbying by women's rights activists.

‘We renew this call today,’ said Fouzia Yassine from Spring of Dignity, a coalition of Moroccan feminist associations, ‘Lawmakers bear responsibility for this situation and for the violence and hardships the women endure.’

Concerns following US ruling

The recent United States Supreme Court decision to strip women of the right to have an abortion has raised concerns globally, with many asking if the same could one day happen in their country.

It is estimated that tens of thousand of women die each year from complications resulting from unsafe practices to terminate a pregnancy.

Across the world yesterday, women and men took to the streets to highlight the need for abortion to be an inalienable women’s right.

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