April 2011
10 posts
Social Media and Women's Health
Last week, I read an article about Mama: Together for Safe Births in Crises, a new type of social media tool developed by the Women’s Refugee Commission and M4ID to connect maternal health practitioners in areas affected by crises to other healthcare providers and experts using Facebook and text messaging. The overarching goal is to save the lives of women in conflict and post-conflict...
Mother's Day Campaign: It's on!
This week, Saving Mothers is kicking off our annual Mother’s Day Campaign to raise funds to support its ongoing maternal health initiatives around the world.
It works like this:
1) You decide that you’d like to send your fantastic mom a special Mother’s Day card, making a $25 donation in her name to Saving Mothers
2) You visit the Saving Mothers website to fill out the...
The Challenge of Reducing Stillbirths
Today, Melinda Gates wrote an article for the Huffington Post about breaking the silence around stillbirths — defined as the death of a baby at 28 weeks gestation or more. Maternal, neonatal and child health is one of the key priorities established by the Gates Foundation.
In her article, Gates highlights the ongoing and underexposed issue of women giving birth to stillborn babies. About...
Update from Liberia: Kiran Chawla (Pt.4)
This is the fourth update from Kiran Chawla, an OBGYN volunteering with Saving Mothers in Liberia.
As much as helping patients makes my heart soar — it was the teaching I did today that made me smile from cheek to cheek.
Post-call and running on EMPTY, the day started as each day starts here with rounding on the patients. But today marked the beginning of a new routine: my daily AM...
Post from the field: Kiran Chawla (Pt. 3)
The day started so beautifully. Teaching.
The ultrasound machine is really nice — transvaginal probe, abdominal probe, color Doppler, power Doppler — but no one knows how to use it. Well, none of the active attendings do.
So Dr. Jallah, Dr. Wong and I lined up the patients… one by one, patient by patient, and we scanned them. Every patient got a full gynecological scan:...
Update from Liberia: Kiran Chawla (Pt. 2)
This is the second blog post from Kiran Chalwa, an OBGYN working with Saving Mothers in Liberia.
My first day gone… Oh what a long long day. I feel like I have been here for a week.
I delivered one baby via c-section, did rounds with the gynecology patients, taught the doctors some ultrasound techniques, and saw plenty of patients in the OPD (outpatient department).
The work is hard and...
Update from Liberia: Kiran Chawla
This is the first post from Kiran Chawla, an OBGYN currently working for Saving Mothers in Liberia. Kiran will be sending us updates about her work in the field, so stay tuned.
Each time coming here is so different but so the same. I am so excited — the work, the people, my friends… everything & all of it. I can’t wait to walk the streets, eat the food and enjoy each moment...
Shortage of Midwives Costs Lives
“More than a million mothers and newborn babies are dying each year from easily prevented birth complications.”
What really gets to me here is the “easily prevented” part.
It’s too easy for me to believe that our world is a cruel place. It only takes looking at events like the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan to realize that, in spite of our best efforts, many...
