International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics : the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics
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Worldwide, one woman dies every minute as a result of being pregnant. This statistic highlights the denial of women's rights to safe motherhood in many parts of the world, particularly in low-resource countries where 98% all maternal deaths occur. The majority of pregnant women die because they deliver unattended by a properly trained birth professional. ⋯ Philanthropy is diverted by other competing needs, such as HIV prevention and treatment, or provision of urgent food supplies. Equity is denied because women's health is too often set as a low priority. Utilitarianism advocates that safe motherhood is an investment of societal shared interest.
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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set very high targets for women's reproductive health through reductions in maternal and infant mortality, among other things. Reductions in maternal mortality and morbidity can be achieved through various different approaches, such as the confidential review of maternal deaths, use of evidence-based treatments and interventions, using a health systems approach, use of information technology, global and regional partnerships, and making pregnancy safer through initiatives that increase the focus on human rights. ⋯ This paper highlights some of the current global efforts on safer pregnancy with a focus on reproductive rights. We encourage readers to do more in every corner of the world to advocate for women's reproductive rights and, in this way, we may achieve the MDGs by 2015.
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Int J Gynaecol Obstet · Aug 2009
To have or not to have: the critical importance of reproductive rights to the paradox of population policies in the 21st century.
Reproductive rights continue to be under threat, even some 15 years after the landmark International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo declared the importance of a satisfying and safe sex life, the capability to have children, and the right to decide on the timing, number, and spacing. The right to choose whether and when to have children is at risk both from some who seek to increase birth rates through pronatalist policies and from some who seek a return to "population control" as a response to global climate change, environmental degradation, endemic poverty, global recession, and food shortages. ⋯ This is contrasted with the unmet need for family planning in the poorest countries. It calls for health providers to advocate for reproductive rights, affirming that the freedom of women to control their fertility is the basis for other essential freedoms.
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The brain drain of health workers occurs mostly from low- and low/middle-income countries to resource-rich countries and from rural to urban areas. Shortage and uneven distribution of healthcare workers aggravated by the brain drain from Africa, Asia, and Pacific countries has contributed to impaired reproductive and sexual health services and the high rate of maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity in these counties. ⋯ A code of practice on international recruitment of health personnel is needed. Improving the health workforce database, wages, health resources and working conditions, task shifting, pay-back from recipient countries and migrant health professionals, securing additional investment in the health workforce, and the development of locally relevant medical training and research are useful measures to combat this problem.
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Women have been migrating at similar rates to men for the past 40 years, and comprised about half of all migrants in 2005. Women and children are most affected by displacement as a result of wars and human trafficking. In some cases, the health of female migrants is improved via integration into better health systems in the host country. ⋯ Female migrants are also highly vulnerable to acts of sexual abuse, rape, and violence. This is especially true for women in refugee camps, whose reproductive health needs are often overlooked. To improve the health of female migrants it is important to develop and implement policies that recognize and insist on the respect of the rights of migrants.