Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health

We focus on the need and impact of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) for adolescents. Nepal has a high rate of adolescent pregnancy, child marriage, unmet contraceptive need and gender disparity. Access to information (SRH), particularly in rural and earthquake recovery areas, is limited by cultural values and the education curriculum is not effectively meeting needs.. Adolescent SRH information will improve reproductive health and social empowerment for girls and sexual health for boys.

Currently, Uganda is hosting about one million South Sudanese refugees many of whom are vulnerable women and children who have witnessed or experienced some forms of violence. As numbers of refugees surge due to the ongoing insecurity and famine in South Sudan, and reduced international funding, refugees have witnessed cuts in their food rations and essential health services affecting the livelihood and wellbeing of the most vulnerable women and unaccompanied children.

In Rhesus D hemolytic disease of the newborn, fetal red blood cells are destroyed by the maternal immune system through the placenta, causing devastating consequences for fetus (e.g., severe anemia, neurologic injury, stillbirth, and neonatal death) [1-2]. In African hospitals, the dose of the drug (an expensive and a potentially scarce blood product) given to patients is ad hoc, preventing effective treatment, exacerbating affordability, and hindering broad access of the drug in Africa [3-5].

South Sudan is an African country that is recovering from civil war, famines, and political instability. Despite its petroleum reserves, Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is 789 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Previously, it was 2,054 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, which was the highest in the world. Still, more than 80% of childbirths happen without the help from a skilled birth attendant and postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the leading cause of maternal deaths in the country.

Sex work, which has ambiguous legal status in Nepal, offers girls and young women from poor and marginalized communities a decent income. However, social exclusion and criminalization of sex work has limited their access to social institutions and further marginalized their status. Fearful of being discriminated by health workers and exposed as sex workers to family and friends, they shun health providers. This has denied them their basic human rights and made them vulnerable to poor health.

Only 57.5% of Ethiopian children under 6 months are exclusively breastfeed. Mothers get 90 days paid maternity leave, of which 60 days are allocated for postpartum. For economic reason most mothers go back to work on the 3rd month after birth. They introduce breastfeeding substitute at this point. Infants face frequent illness and loss on the benefit of breastfeeding. Mothers spend their income on breastfeeding substitute. They face dissatisfaction, frequent absenteeism and lag in their career.

Clínica Verde is a global healthcare organization that operates a prototype clinic in Boaco, Nicaragua with a focus on providing high-quality maternal and pediatric health services. What Clínica Verde offers is wholly unique among health centers for the underserved in this region: a staff guided by compassion and dignity for the poor; a clinic grounded in principles of sustainable and human-centered design; and the provision of nutrition and health education to enhance self-efficacy and preventive health.

There is a need for evidence-based programmes that address nutritional, health, and behavioural factors that impact children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM). In critical cases, hospital treatment is required for children with SAM but post discharge outcomes remain poor. We believe that the time spent in-hospital while children receive treatment for SAM is a valuable opportunity to provide programs for primary caregivers (mainly mothers) to target underlying causes and consequences of SAM.

Olbalbal Ward of Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is home to nearly 12 000 marginalized Maasai pastoralists. Women and children suffer most from macro/micro-nutrient deficiencies in part due to a cultivation ban within NCA, plus economic and transportation poverty reducing access to fruits and vegetables. Infrequent market days provide low quantity and quality foods unaffordable to most. Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) are frontline maternal child health (MCH) providers within NCA, with minimal supplies, training, and linkages to formal health care.

Pregnancy in college-going single women is increasing in Eldoret Kenya with a large number being from adolescents 15-19 years of age. Unwanted pregnancies often lead to unsafe abortions as well as other negative maternal health outcomes. Only 36.2% of women and 52.9% of men between 20 and 24 used a condom during their last sexual intercourse in the past 12 months despite nationwide efforts to increase HIV awareness, widespread male condom distribution and common fears of unplanned pregnancy.