Skip to main content
Ebola disease in DRC: find out how we're responding
Learn more
280 Results
 
Safe Abortion Colombia illustration
Colombia

Women and girls prevented from having a safe abortion

Colombia decriminalised abortion more than a decade ago but women and girls still encounter numerous barriers when seeking to terminate pregnancies. Press Release - 25 Sep 2019
 
MSF worker sits with a female patient
Colombia

Unsafe abortion: women at risk

Colombia has progressive abortion legislation yet only 10 per cent of terminations of pregnancy are safely performed in health structures. MSF report. Report - 25 Sep 2019
 
Newborn in Nablus maternity, Mosul.
Iraq

Mosul's expectant mothers just can't wait

Thousands of people are still struggling to access affordable quality healthcare in Mosul, northern Iraq, and pregnant women are among the most vulnerable. In west Mosul, two MSF maternity units welcome more than 150 babies each week. Project Update - 11 Sep 2019
 
Natali and Katerine were sexually abused by their grandfatehr (their mothers father).  He has since been incarcerated.  Meanwhile the girls and their mother have all received psychiatric treatment for the trauma of these occurances and have found the treatment very beneficial.  This is the last of their 8 sessions with MSF psychologist Gracia and they are very grateful for her help.
Honduras

Emergency contraceptive pill vital for sexual assault victims

The prohibition of ECP in Honduras urgently needs to be overturned so that a comprehensive health protocol for victims of sexual violence can be validated and put into practice. Project Update - 19 Jul 2019
 
Kenema hospital during the end of the first of four construction phases. Pictures are taken after the main building structures have been built.

Medical Communication Advisor Gijs Van Gassen inspecting one of the modular buildings at the hospital.
Sierra Leone

New hospital to counter high maternal and child mortality rates

On 6 March 2019, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomed the first patients in its new 63-bed hospital in Hangha town, Kenema district, southeast Sierra Leone. Project Update - 14 Jun 2019
 
Bayan, 18 year old, is a mother of two children: Watan and Assil. After giving birth to Assil, who is now 2.5 months old, she decided to use family planning methods. She came to MSF’s clinic in Bourj El Barajneh camp for a family planning consultation. Bayan’s two pregnancies were followed up at MSF’s clinic. After her last delivery, she received all the information about family planning from a midwife, during the post-natal care visit. She says: "My second pregnancy was not planned; I gave birth to two children in 2 years, now I want to prevent any new pregnancy. I come here regularly for consultations, and “Em Shadi” is my favourite midwife.”
Lebanon

Empowered midwives, satisfied mothers – midwife-led care in Lebanon

For International Day of the Midwife, MSF Dr Laura Rinchey explains the benefits of midwife-led care for expectant and new mothers, and the efforts MSF is undertaking to improve midwife-led care in Lebanon. Voices from the Field - 3 May 2019
 
A view of the newborn unit managed by MSF in DHQ Timergara, Pakistan. The unit receives newborn children with medical complications from the Mother and Child Health center, which is also managed by MSF in the hospital. The unit also has a separate breastfeeding area for mothers.
Pakistan

Drugs meant to help give life come with serious health risks

In Pakistan, the misuse of labour-inducing drugs poses serious health risks to mothers and new-borns. MSF has implemented training for medical workers in the country, which has one of the highest maternal and neonatal mortality rates in the world, to educate them on the risks. Project Update - 24 Apr 2019
 
Two premature twins closely monitored at the neonates department of the MSF run “Mother and Child”. Public hospitals in the area is not fully functioning and the few private health facilities that are still running are inaccessible or unaffordable to many people. Taiz Houban. Yemen
Yemen

Complicated delivery: The Yemeni mothers and children dying without medical care

After four years of war in Yemen, MSF finds that access to medical care in the country is limited and the lack of timely access can be deadly, particularly for pregnant women and children. Report - 24 Apr 2019
 
Caretaker with a patient coming from Taiz city to the mother and child hospital in Taiz houban.
Yemen

Mothers and children left to die in Yemen without access to medical care

A new MSF report describes how pregnant women and children are particularly vulnerable to high rates of mortality due to a lack of easy access to hospitals in Yemen's war-torn healthcare system. Press Release - 24 Apr 2019
 
Mothers wait with their children outside the paediatric outpatient department of Ahmad Shah Baba Hospital in the area of the same name in Kabul's outer eastern suburbs.
Afghanistan

Ahmad Shah Baba project is handed over to the Ministry of Public Health

After working in Ahmad Shah Baba hospital, eastern Kabul, since 2009, MSF has handed over the last of our activities in the hospital to the Ministry of Public Health in Afghanistan. Project Update - 31 Mar 2019
Four mothers posing in a corridor of the Hospital in Bili. All four of them are staying in the hospital with their child, that's suffering from a severe case of malaria. Since the beginning of the project in 2016, the pediatric ward already treated more than 4.000 cases of complicated/severe form of malaria.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Independent medical humanitarian assistance

We provide medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. Our teams are made up of tens of thousands of health professionals, logistic and administrative staff - most of them hired locally. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of independence and impartiality. We are a non-profit, self-governed, member-based organisation.

Learn more