Maternal Health
latest news & developments
Childbirth abuse is rife. Why don’t we see it?
A landmark survey reveals that nearly 1.8 million women in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal experienced obstetric violence over the past decade. In response, South Africa's health…
Study: Linking climate change to health doubles support for public action
New research shows that health-based climate messaging significantly increases public support for government action, especially in South Africa where concern over children and…
Global wars and fuel shocks are putting pregnant women at greater risk of dying in childbirth
As wars disrupt fuel supplies and health systems, more women are being forced to give birth without timely access to skilled care
Two superbugs causing over half of infections that kill newborns in Soweto and outsmarting treatment
Over the past 10 years, researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand’s vaccines and infectious diseases analytics unit analysed small tissue samples of 1 586 children…
Why so many newborns and foetuses are abandoned in landfills and the veld
Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand have gathered data from the Diepkloof Forensic Pathology Service in Soweto to better understand why so many women turn to…
Eastern Cape headman: ‘You won’t find a child born with HIV in this village’
Babies getting HIV from their infected mothers is rare in a cluster of 39 villages in the OR Tambo district
How breast milk can help fight climate change
A new proposal that aims to get more women to breastfeed says this could cut back the greenhouse gas emissions and get countries that produce the bulk of emissions to pay for it
Heat from a changing climate poses a significant risk to mothers and babies
It is crucial to pay attention to the effects of a warming world on mothers and babies because it stands to affect them the most
The Covid pandemic has exacerbated weaknesses in health systems, particularly in poor countries
Strategic investments in health care for all are needed to ensure safe births, treatment of tuberculosis, malaria, measles, pneumonia and diarrhoea, and children are vaccinated