maternal mortality
lborkowski | May 15, 2017A few of the recent pieces I recommend reading:
Nina Martin and Renee Montagne for ProPublica and NPR: The Last Person You’d Expect to Die in Childbirth
Elizabeth Dawes Gay at Rewire: Could Increasing the Number of Black Health-Care Providers Fix Our Maternal Health Problem?
Vann R. Newkirk II in The Atlantic: The American Health Care Act's Prosperity Gospel
Matthew Desmond in The New York Times Magazine: How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Indquality
Jay Reeves for the Associated Press (at STAT): Generations later, the effects of the Tuskegee syphilis study linger
lborkowski | March 20, 2017A few of the recent pieces I recommend reading:
Sarah Kliff & Ezra Klein at Vox: The Lessons of Obamacare
Chris Ladd in Forbes: Unspeakable Realities Block Universal Health Coverage in the US
Donelle Eller in the Des Moines Register: Iowa pollution enforcement could lose big under Trump EPA cuts, critics warn
Teddy Wilson at Rewire: Texas Legislators "Ignore" Spiking Black Maternal Mortality Rates
Linda-Gail Bekker & Anthony S. Fauci at STAT: Women are Leading the Way in HIV Research
And because the House Republicans' healthcare bill is so consequential for public health and there's…
sastyk | February 13, 2012One of our families favorite things to do is check out old cemetaries - my kids love to read gravestones and talk about the stories that came behind them. I love cemetaries - I find them comforting in an odd way, although I'm not fully sure I can explain why, and I'm glad that my children have the same passion for historical records and also the same pleasure in knowing something about lives before ours.
Walking in old graveyards is also always a reminder of how fortunate I am. Most graveyards have a "children's" section, or family stones record the brief and incredibly short lives of…
lborkowski | June 30, 2011NPR's Melissa Block traveled to Mozambique, where poverty and a shortage of both healthcare providers and facilities contribute to a high maternal mortality rate, for the first segment of the "Beginnings" series that will air throughout the summer on All Things Considered. She starts off with some grim statistics:
In Mozambique in southeastern Africa, the rates of maternal and infant mortality are among the highest in the world.
In her lifetime, a Mozambican woman has a 1 in 37 chance of dying during pregnancy or within a short time after a pregnancy has ended. One in 10 children won't live…
lborkowski | May 23, 2011The saying "demography is destiny" reportedly dates back to 19th-century social scientist Auguste Comte, and it's still popular among journalists. Earlier this year, for instance, Alan Wheatley of Reuters warned about the challenges Asian countries (especially Japan) will face as over-60 residents make up ever-larger shares of their populations. His article also touches on the challenges for countries that face the opposite problem: a large proportion of young residents, or "large cohorts of angry, unemployed young men" prone to causing turmoil.
A recent Council on Foreign Relations report…
lborkowski | March 8, 2011For today's celebration of International Women's Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon remarks:
One hundred years ago, when the world first commemorated International Women's Day, gender equality and women's empowerment were largely radical ideas. On this centenary, we celebrate the significant progress that has been achieved through determined advocacy, practical action and enlightened policy making. Yet, in too many countries and societies, women remain second-class citizens.
He goes on to describe violence against women (including sexual aggression in conflict), women and children's…
lborkowski | May 28, 2010Officials from G8 countries will be gathering in Toronto next month, and scientific bodies from the eight countries (e.g., the Royal Society of Canada and US National Academy of Science) have developed a joint statement about what the G8 should do improve the health of women in children. They begin by citing the Millennium Development Goals of reducing under-five child mortality by two-thirds and maternal mortality by three-quarters by 2015; they note that we've seen "some progress in global child health" but the maternal-mortality reduction goal "remains a distant target." The statement…