Maternal and child health

Infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS) is one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders in infancy, one that frequently necessitates abdominal surgery. While in wealthier countries such operations are fairly routine and only rarely involve complications, in resource-poor settings the disorder can prove fatal for infants due to the lack of neonatal and pediatric surgeons in [...]

In Mozambique neonatal mortality is 34 neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births, accounting for approximately 35% of under-5 deaths. Around 25% of these neonatal deaths is linked to delivery-related events, in particular breathing problems. Indeed, the intervention of health care personnel is required when newborns are unable to breathe spontaneously, but in lower-income countries health [...]

The use of spatial and geographic models such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was integrated into this study, whose aim was to assess the coverage of health care centers offering obstetric services in two rural areas of Tanzania, the Iringa and Ludewa Districts. Both areas have a high density of health care facilities. However, the [...]

Ethiopia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world (676 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births) and is one of the ten countries in the world that comprise 58% of global maternal deaths. Problems of coverage are certainly among the factors contributing to this dire mortality rate. Indeed, pregnant women’s failure to [...]

The performance of a health care system can be measured by three parameters: the coverage, equity and quality of health care services. In Sub-Saharan Africa there are still major problems in each of these areas which prevent the respective countries from achieving the Millennium Development Goals related to maternal and neonatal health. The objective of [...]

Maternal and neonatal health indicators in Uganda are very poor: the maternal mortality rate is 438 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, while the child mortality rate is 54 deaths per 1,000 live births. The study presented here was carried out in the Karamoja region, an area where Doctors with Africa CUAMM has been active [...]

Between 1990 and 2014, significant results were obtained for reducing child and maternal mortality, as set by the fourth and fifth Millennium Development Goals. However, there are alarming disparities from country to country and between rural and urban regions with concentrations of mortality in the poorest rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. To [...]

In Tanzania, like in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, there are high maternal mortality rates. In response to the fifth Millennium Development Goal, the government has put in place strategies to extend the coverage of health facilities to increase the number of deliveries in health facilities. As a result, in the district of Iringa, in [...]

WHO has estimated approximately 358,000 maternal deaths occurred during pregnancy, childbirth or within 42 hours of birth (2008 data) with a considerable reduction (about 34%) since 1990. However these data are less positive if we look at Sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for more than half of maternal deaths. Many studies have shown the importance of [...]

With a population that is about 11% of the world population, Sub-Saharan Africa has half of maternal and child deaths. Partly as strategies to meet the Millennium Development Goals (4 and 5), numerous interventions have been implemented to combat mother and infant mortality, with special attention to health services for skilled attendance at birth. Why [...]