Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health

Menstruation and sexual health are taboo topics in Indonesia. A culture of silence contributes to a lack of knowledge on menstruation and SRHR. In rural areas, access to products to manage menstruation hygienically are limited and are not cost-effective long-term. Females are often not aware of their SRHR needs or are too embarrassed to discuss their problems, negatively influencing health seeking behaviour. This is reflected in low uptake of SRHR services and poor SRHR indicators (1,2).

In Tanzania, almost one in four (23%) girls between the ages of 15 and 19 has either given birth or is pregnant. The unmet need for family planning is particularly high among teenagers. As a result, many teenage pregnancies are unplanned and unintended. Teenagers and young women often do not seek contraception through community clinics (where it is free of charge) due to fear of stigma (presumed promiscuity), lack of confidentiality, lack of knowledge of contraception, and, lack of empowerment.

Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a national issue in Ghana. Maternal mortality rates, unplanned and teenage pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and HIV infections are still high. Progress in national coverage in SRH has been made aimed at influencing people’s sexual behavior; provision of reliable information on SRH issues to every citizen. Nevertheless, lack of SRH services in accessible formats, and other barriers have resulted in lack of priority on the SRH needs of Deaf people.

In rural Bangladesh preventable causes of maternal health complications are still common. Adolescent pregnancies, ascribed mostly to child marriages, are among the highest in the world. The situation is more acute in culturally conservative Rohingya refugee communities in Cox’s Bazar. Men are key decision-makers in reproductive and maternal health, but these aspects are largely overlooked by public health strategies, which undermines the impact of maternal health interventions.

Hypothermia in new born health priorities is strongly emphasized and mitigation strategies are researched in high-,middle-and low income settings. It is still a critical issue in low-, and middle-income settings.A gap still exists as identified in "Establishing a value proposition for low-resource settings" by Path USA in December 2009. Products that solve this problem by instant heat generation, without the use of electricity or other means of activation currently do not exist.

In Cambodia, approximately 25% of women living with HIV (WLHIV) wish to delay or avoid pregnancy, but are not consistently using modern contraception. A policy to address this gap by making family planning services available at ART clinics is not widely implemented because clinicians are reluctant to provide services that they perceive as only incidental to their HIV responsibilities. As a result, WLHIV do not have convenient access to contraception and could be at risk of unplanned pregnancy.

Ukrainian culture/media reinforces the idea that women are either "bad girls" (sexual/get abortions) or "good mothers". Ukrainians need facts, resources and progressive voices on sex, birth control and postpartum mood disorders to end stereotypes/stigmas that block women from getting needed healthcare. Our pro-women podcasts will provide evidence based info and health policy news including how proposed changes to national healthcare impact women and how they can advocate for their needs.

A Healthy Me addresses poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes among disadvantaged adolescent girls in the Philippines, including teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections such as HIV, and the emerging threat of online sexual exploitation. It helps overcome the significant sociocultural and political barriers to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information and access to affordable, community-based government health services.

Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy (HDP) account for 15% South Africa's (SA) institutional maternal mortality ratio of 154/100000 live births, the third highest cause after non-pregnancy related infections (35%) and hemorrhage (16%). The main obstetric problems are eclampsia, severe hypertension, HELLP syndrone and liver rupture, with eclampsia being the most common cause of mortality. Maternal deaths due to HDP have been found to be preventable in 67% of reported cases. (NCCEMD Report Ref 1).

Pre-eclampsia is a major cause of maternal mortality & morbidity particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Multi-faceted factors including hypoxia, inflammation of undetermined mechanisms impact the onset & progression of this disease which cause immunological alteration of placental micro-environment & impaired angiogenesis. However, the major challenge in modern obstetrics is the lack of early cost effective method of prediction & prevention.