Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies
A free public forum on maternal health was held on Thursday, October 21, 2010 at the Liu Institute for Global Issues. NGDI Associate, Dr. Farah Schroff was a panelist for the session. She was interviewed by Redeye Radio 102.7 about this issue. To listen to this 14 minute interview click here.
Amnesty International worked with a number of agencies and UBC departments to present a free public forum on maternal health. The forum featured UBC faculty, community researchers, practitioners, and activists with expertise and experience with improving maternal health in Canada and around the world.
The purpose of the panel was to focus public attention on maternal health, with particular attention on countries that are doing little to address high rates of maternal mortality. Panelists addressed a variety of issues which may include access to healthcare (rural vs urban, discrimination faced by women from specific communities, etc), traditional vs “western” approaches to childbirth, state obligations, aid (including the Prime Minister’s recent announcement), global trends and outlook, leading to an exploration of what individuals, groups, and states can/should do.
The forum was presented within Amnesty International’s campaign on improving maternal health, key strategy in our campaign and action work to end global poverty. Amnesty International is calling for access to quality health care for all women and an end to the human rights violations that increase maternal mortality.
The NGDI sponsored a poster for this session.
Key websites:
Online action on MDG #5 (improving maternal health)
AI Canada maternal health blog