Indonesia established its Village Midwife Program in 1989 to combat high rates of maternal mortality. The program's goals were to address gaps in access to reproductive health care for rural women, increase access to and use of family planning services, and broaden the mix of available contraceptive methods. In this study, we use longitudinal data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey to examin...

It brought forward faith leaders, clinicians, researchers, program managers, and government officials to unite around a common vision: universal access to reproductive health and education. The ICPD focused on girls and women, their economic empowerment, their reproductive rights, and the role of family planning in reducing maternal and child mortality. On January 8, 2010, more than 15 years af...

The impact of HIV on maternal mortality and more broadly on the health of women, remains poorly documented and understood. Two recent reports attempt to address the conceptual and methodological challenges that arise in estimating HIV-related maternal mortality and trends. This paper presents and compares the methods and discusses how they affect estimates at global and regional levels. Country...

We use a set of linked reproductive histories taken from Sweden, the Netherlands, and Spain for the period 1871-1960 to address key issues regarding how reproductive change was linked specifically to mortality and survivorship and more generally to individual agency. Using event-history analysis, this study investigates how the propensity to have additional children was influenced by the number...

INTRODUCTION In Kenya, the maternal mortality rate had ranged from 328 to 501 deaths per 100,000 live births over the last three decades. To reduce these rates, the government launched in 2006 a means-tested reproductive health output-based approach (OBA) voucher program that covers costs of antenatal care, a facility-based delivery (FBD) and a postnatal visit in prequalified healthcare facilit...

©FSRH J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care 2008: 34(2) Background Malawi is one of the countries worst hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with an infection rate among the childbearing age group of 12.0%.1 Young people aged 15–24 years account for 46% of new HIV infections, of which 60% occur in girls. HIV prevalence is even higher in some rural districts (17.5%, p<0.01).2 In common with many other sub-Sah...

Parasites can cause severe host morbidity and threaten survival. As parasites are generally aggregated within certain host demographics, they are likely to affect a small proportion of the entire population, with specific hosts being at particular risk. However, little is known as to whether increased host mortality from parasitic causes is experienced by specific host demographics. Outside of ...

Question: Can field measurements of stress hormones help us to assess the prudent parent hypothesis in a long-lived seabird? Organism: Black-legged kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla. Location: Duck and Gull Islands, Cook Inlet, Alaska, USA. Methods: We examined the statistical relationship between the stress hormone corticosterone and mortality in black-legged kittiwakes. We built a demographic model...

Since the Millennium Declaration in 2000, unprecedented progress has been made in the reduction of global maternal mortality. Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5; improving maternal health) includes two primary targets, 5A and 5B. Target 5A aimed for a 75% reduction in the global maternal mortality ratio (MMR), and 5B aimed to achieve universal access to reproductive health. Globally, maternal...