Saving mother's and children's lives - video
This video, in English, French and Spanish highlights that every year an estimated 360 000 women die in pregnancy and childbirth and around 8 million children die before their fifth birthday. Millions can be saved if the right health care is available.
Improving the health of women and children in Afghanistan
The health system in Afghanistan continues to face many challenges – including a shortage of skilled female health-care workers and family planning services. This is why WHO is helping to establish training courses for midwives and supporting programmes to improve family planning services. This photo gallery illustrates some of these initiatives and how they are helping to improve health care for women and children.
District planning tool for maternal and newborn health strategy implementation
This publication provides national and district health managers/planners with practical resources for the planning and implementation of Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH) services towards making pregnancy safer.
It is a practical tool for anyone who is responsible for MNH programme management and all stakeholders at district level. It includes a technical overview on prevalence and causes of maternal and newborn death and disability; highlights strategic directions for improving maternal and newborn health and the key 10 steps required for the proposed district planning framework for MNH.
Strengthening midwifery toolkit
There have been serious efforts over the past several decades to review effective interventions for improving pregnancy and childbirth outcomes. A clear consensus has emerged from these analyse that providing skilled care at every birth is an essential component of interventions to reduce maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Without availability of a health provider with specific midwifery skills and competencies, particularly lifesaving skills, international goals for maternal and newborn health cannot be reached.
