Posts tagged women
Photo by Marjie Middleton/MSF
“We’ve heard stories of women left to deliver on their own in a tent. Such stories are very upsetting to me as a midwife, because I know how dangerous it is and how awful it must be for a mother to give birth scared and alone.” - MSF midwife in Lebanon working with pregnant Syrian refugees Read the story
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Photo by Shannon Jensen
Ask MSF’s International President, Dr. Unni Karunakara, anything on @Reddit on Monday at 9am EDT @Reddit_AMA
As negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement move to Malaysia this week, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) urges negotiating countries to remove terms that could block people from accessing affordable medicines, choke off production of generic medicines, and constrain the ability of governments to pass laws in the interest of public health. Read more - http://bit.ly/15yjz3j
Photo by Philippe Schneider
A nurse uses a doll to show where a patient was injured at the 9 Mile Clinic in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Doctors Without Borders treats survivors of sexual and domestic violence and trains local staff to provide integrated care. This is a simplified treatment protocol that includes: psychological first aid; prophylaxis for HIV and medicine for other sexually transmitted infections (STIs); emergency contraception; and vaccination to prevent Hepatitis B and tetanus—all in one session. http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=6850&cat=field-news
We are very worried about our women; we have more than 200 pregnant women in our camp. For their delivery they cannot go to a health center and they will have to deliver here … in the mud without a doctor.
Man living in a displaced persons camp in Pauktaw Township, Rakhine State.
The Ongoing Humanitarian Emergency in Myanmar’s Rakhine State
Eight months since deadly communal clashes first broke out in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, tens of thousands of people are still unable to access urgently needed medical care. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls on government authorities and community leaders to ensure that all people of Rakhine can live without fear of violence, abuse, and harassment, and that humanitarian organizations can assist those most in need.
UMOJA: A village where no men are allowed
These Kenyan women have faced violence and oppression in their community for many years. They say violence and male dominance are part of their culture–a part that they do not like. Following a fierce leader, Rebecca, the women of Umoja started their own village. A village where no men are allowed. A village that is safe for women to live well, eat healthy, and support each other. Watch this moving documentary to see how the Umoja women created a safe space, and sustained living.
Photo: Sam Perkins, MSF midwife, in the Masisi conflict zone in Democratic Republic of Congo. DRC 2011 © Yasuyoshi Chiba
Refugees in South Sudan: “We Walked for Six Days … With Nothing But Our Clothes”
“We were on the road for two months. Many villages we went through kept being bombed, so we had to keep fleeing. We had food for two weeks, then we ran out. We ate the lalop fruit and leaves from trees. We gave food for the children mostly, and some days we had nothing to eat. Some people got very sick and we had to leave some by the road—we could not carry them and they were too weak to continue.”
—28-year-old mother of six children
Photo: Refugees fleeing conflict and food insecurity in the Nuba Mountains face insufficient levels of assistance in Yida camp.
South Sudan 2012 © Sally McMillan
The Avoidable Crisis of Maternal Death
MSF makes it a priority to provide lifesaving, emergency obstetric care in both acute and chronic humanitarian crises. MSF teams strive to address the five main causes of maternal death: hemorrhage, sepsis, unsafe abortion, hypertensive disorders, and obstructed labour.
In a conflict or crisis, pregnant women are even more vulnerable because health services have collapsed, are inadequate, or are totally non-existent. But these women need access to quality emergency obstetric care whether they live in a conflict zone, in a refugee camp, or under plastic sheeting after a devastating earthquake.
In fact, they need the same help that all pregnant women facing a complication need: access to appropriate medical assistance—skilled medical staff, drugs, and equipment—to save their life and the life of their baby.
Conflict, epidemics, natural disasters, or the complete breakdown of a country’s health system are crises faced by MSF’s millions of patients around the world every day. But a maternal death: that’s the avoidable crisis.
Infographic by Will Owen
Urgent Delivery—Maternal Death: The Avoidable Crisis
Every day, approximately 1,000 women die in childbirth or from a pregnancy-related complication. Maternal death can occur at any time in pregnancy, but delivery is by far the most dangerous time for both the mother and the baby. The vast majority of these deaths can be prevented if access to emergency obstetric care is ensured.
Doctors Without Borders makes it a priority to provide lifesaving, emergency obstetric care in both acute and chronic humanitarian crises. In the organization’s emergency activities, teams strive to address the five main causes of maternal death: hemorrhage, sepsis, unsafe abortion, hypertensive disorders, and obstructed labour.
South Sudan 2011 © Avril Benoit/MSF
A mother and child at MSF’s supplementary feeding distribution in Abathok.
DRC: “I Got on the Motorbike With the Midwife”
Doctors Without Borders makes it a priority to provide life-saving, emergency obstetric care in both acute and chronic humanitarian crises. Fifteen percent of all pregnancies worldwide will experience a life-threatening complication. The most critical moment is delivery: the majority of maternal deaths occur just before, during, or just after delivery, often from complications that cannot be predicted. It is at this point that the provision of quality obstetric care is vital to save women’s lives. The majority of maternal deaths are avoidable when access to emergency obstetric care is ensured.
View MSF’s International Women’s Day video on Haiti.
View the International Women’s Day video on South Sudan.
View MSF’s International Women’s Day video on Pakistan.
We know that 15 percent of all pregnancies worldwide will experience a life-threatening complication. Women need access to quality emergency obstetric care whether they live in Sydney, Port-au-Prince, or Mogadishu. The reality is the same for women in a modern hospital in a major city, or for those living in a conflict zone, a refugee camp, or under plastic sheeting following a devastating earthquake.
women’s health advisor for MSF.
As an emergency medical organization, MSF has demonstrated that maternal deaths can be reduced, including during humanitarian crises. The organization has invested significantly in developing the technical and logistical capacity to provide life-saving—and free-of-charge—emergency obstetric care.
Check out the report on Maternal Death: The Avoidable Crisis
Pakistan: Delivering in the Dark
The next video in MSF’s International Women’s Day series takes us to MSF’s birthing unit in Kuchlak, in Pakistan’s Balochistan Province, to which women travel long distances for crucial care they’d otherwise go without.
Afghanistan: MSF Opens Maternity Hospital in Khost
The international medical humanitarian organization MSF has opened a new maternity hospital in eastern Khost Province in Afghanistan, which will provide pregnant women in the region with desperately needed high-quality health care.
Decades of conflict have left Afghanistan with maternal and child mortality rates among the highest in the world. Most women, especially in rural areas, must resort to giving birth without skilled assistance and in unhealthy conditions, which puts their own lives and those of their children at significant risk.
Khost is one of Afghanistan’s most volatile provinces, where national and international military forces have engaged in intense fighting with armed opposition groups in recent years. The conflict has affected the ability of women to access adequate maternal health care.
Photo: Afghanistan 2011 © Peter Casaer
A child with diarrhea in the pediatric department at Boost Hospital in Helmand Province, where MSF has been working since 2009.
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