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Ebola disease in DRC: find out how we're responding
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Somalia

Addressing health needs of women and children in Baidoa

In Somalia, maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world. In Baidoa, southern Somalia, MSF teams are working to improve the lives of pregnant women and babies. Project Update - 21 Mar 2019
 
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Women's health

Unsafe abortion: a forgotten emergency

The world has made significant progress on four of the five main causes of maternal mortality. But unsafe abortion—the only almost completely preventable cause—has been largely forgotten. Project Update - 4 Mar 2019
 
A baby in the New Born Unit (NBU) of Peshawar Women Hospital. The NBU is equipped with warmers, cardiovascular supports in the form of oxygen, intravenous fluids and phototherapy for neonatal jaundice.
Pakistan

Increasing newborn babies' chances of survival

MSF supports maternal and child healthcare services and awareness-raising activities in Peshawar and other areas of Pakistan, which has the highest rate of newborn mortality in the world. Project Update - 8 Nov 2018
 
Ethiopia, Gambella Region: In the Kule Refugee Camp MSF runs a Health Center with around 120 beds. Around 54.000 refugees live in the Camp, they have fled the conflict in South Sudan. Midwife Christine Tasnier with Nyadak That and her baby Nyamire. “The birth was very difficult. But meanwhile, we were able to dismiss mother and child healthy. Right in the picture is Moskito - our translator and the aunt of Nyadak”, says Christine Tasnier.
Ethiopia

A name full of hope

Midwife Christine Tasnier and her colleagues work in the maternity ward of the 120-bed health centre MSF runs in Kule refugee camp, in Ethiopia. Around 54,000 refugees live in the camp, having fled the conflict in South Sudan. Voices from the Field - 30 Oct 2018
 
In 2012, MSF opened a maternity hospital in Khost, in eastern Afghanistan, to address the lack of obstetric care in the area.
Afghanistan

“My sister, I will take care of you”

Gynaecologist Dr Séverine Caluwaerts shares her unique insight into MSF’s maternity ward in Khost, eastern Afghanistan, and the stories of its patients and staff. Voices from the Field - 3 Oct 2018
 
In Afghanistan there is a lot of pressure on women to become pregnant, and to become pregnant quickly after marriage. This has led to an abuse of fertility medication which you can buy, unregulated, at the market. As a result we see many twins, triplets, quadruplets and even quintuplets born in our hospital. These babies are often born prematurely and so are very small – sometimes weighing no more than a bag of sugar. These four babies, and their brother who sadly passed away after birth due to an infection, were born to a surprised mum who thought she was having triplets. When she went into labour she got the shock of her life when it turned out she was carrying five babies (3 boys and 2 girls). Their dedicated mother lived at the hospital for weeks to express milk to feed all four of them every two hours with a syringe. Unfortunately after some months she eventually decided to take the babies home before they were ready to be discharged as she had other children to care for.
Afghanistan

Illustrating MSF’s busiest maternity ward

Illustrator Aurélie Neyret and her comic ‘Hila: Born in Afghanistan’ help tell the stories of patients and staff at MSF’s maternity ward in Khost, eastern Afghanistan. Project Update - 3 Oct 2018
 
Mamotsieleli Molofotsane is around 20 years old she says. She has three children and is pregnant with her fourth.  Mamotsieleli has been tested HIV positive and is on ARV treatment. Her three children have been tested HIV negative.  To go to the MSF supported clinic of Ha Seng, she has to walk many hours. She already missed an appointment for a refill of her ARV drugs due to the distance and a problem with her feet.  In Lesotho, the health centers are very scattered. Women have to walk many hours and sometimes even have to sleep overnight before they can reach the health center.  As a result, many women have a poor adherence to their treatment.  Some are not coming to the health centers on a regular basis.  When a pregnant woman like Mamotsieleli doesn’t adhere well to her ARV treatment,  it increases the risk for her to transmit the virus to her child.   It also means that her treatment will not work properly for herself: she will get sick, resistant to treatment and ultimately risk death.  Maternal mortality -linked to HIV- in Lesotho is one of the highest in the world.
Women's health

"I’ve seen with my own eyes, safe abortion saves women's lives"

Dr Manisha Kumar talks about her experience in the field with women needing access to safe abortion care and efforts to increase access to contraceptive and safe abortion care services offered by MSF projects. Interview - 27 Sep 2018
 
Women are waiting at the MSF supported hospital in Masisi, North Kivu, DRC. The MSF teams support the full extent of primary and secondary health care services (surgery, internal medicine, gynecology, maternity, pediatric, neonatology as well as a « village d’accueil » for women in their third trimester of a risky pregnancy who can stay there to ensure they have access to medicalized support to give birth) and undertake mobile clinics with a focus on malaria (curative/preventative) in remote health posts; watsan & health promotion.
Democratic Republic of Congo

48 hours on the frontline of maternity care

blogs.msf.org - 24 Sep 2018
 
Newborn babies in the MSF facility in Likoni
Kenya

Tales from MSF’s ‘Container Village’ in Likoni

While renovating and expanding the old Mrima health centre in Likoni, Kenya, MSF set up an innovative shipping-container facility where it offered sexual and reproductive health services, including caesarean sections. In the two and a half years it was operational before services were moved to the new facility in May 2018, MSF’s medical team assisted 11,578 deliveries in the ‘Container Village’. Photo Story - 16 Aug 2018
 
MSF has trained a group of young women to spread messages about surviving sexual violence. The presence of Rohingya women in our outreach team is vital.
Bangladesh

“This feels more like an emergency room than a normal delivery room”

In the makeshift settlements in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, many Rohingya women give birth in their tents, limiting their medical options in case something goes wrong. MSF’s new maternity ward in Kutupalong, which will be able to withstand extreme weather, offers private rooms for new mothers and their babies, who face an uncertain future in Bangladesh. Project Update - 23 May 2018
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.

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