Cross-post

Given the growing evidence of Zika’s connection to birth defects, it is imperative to provide all women – pregnant or not – the health care they need, said a panel of women’s health advocates and experts at the Wilson Center on April 12. Missed the…

“Zika has made a long-standing public health crisis impossible to ignore,” said Chloë Cooney, director of global advocacy at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in last Friday's podcast from the Wilson Center's Maternal Health Initiative. Read…

No matter where a woman gives birth, quality health care must be available and accessible. In our call to recognize April 11th as International Day for Maternal Health and Rights, we must continue to protect women's rights to essential, life-saving…

The fundamental right for respectful, high quality health care should extend beyond the perinatal period to accommodate women throughout their lifespan. The intersectionality of race, gender, class and access to health care must be considered to ensure…

Respectful maternity care is sometimes framed as a ‘soft issue’ without the same urgency as emergency obstetric services, but the consequences of mistreatment can be serious and far-reaching. As we celebrate International Day for Maternal Health and…

Luis Tam, global technical lead for maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) at Management Sciences for Health (MSH), discusses five ways to create lasting, scalable MNCH programs...read more

When it comes to maternal and newborn health, we are often loath to share information about “failed” efforts. We need a culture shift that recognizes that failure is our “first attempt in learning,” and that those learnings can help save women’s and…

By Alicia Ely Yamin, Director of Policy, FXB Center for Health & Human Rights The speed with which the Zika virus appears to be spreading is only surpassed by the speed at which structural political failures in Latin America have been transformed…

By Koki Agarwal, Director, Maternal and Child Survival Program; Ana Langer, Director, Maternal Health Task Force; and Joy Riggs-Perla, Director, Saving Newborn Lives at Save the Children While the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) underlined the…

Oral contraceptives taken just before or during pregnancy do not increase the risk of birth defects, according to a new study by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark. They found that…