Emilio Godoy
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Mexico, May 6 2009 (IPS) – Mexican communications specialist Marla Vargas had her baby in the bathtub at home, attended by a midwife, because, she says, I wanted a different experience, and a better way for my child to come into the world.
Midwifery students in class Credit: Courtesy of CASA
The practice of midwifery in Mexico goes back to the pre-Hispanic cultures of the people living in this land before the arrival of the conquistadors in the early 16th century. In many rural communities, midwives are the only …
Other factors driving world hunger are an increase in natural disasters such as floods, tropical storms and drought; armed conflict (since 1992, the proportion of short and long-term food crises attributable to human causes has more than doubled, from 15 percent to more than 35 percent); extreme poverty and inadequate agricultural infrastructure, such as roads, warehouses and irrigation; and the threats to farmland posed by erosion, salination and desertification.
According to the WFP, hunger and malnutrition remain the world s number one health risk, greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
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One in six people go to bed hungry every night, Bettina Luescher of the World Food Programme told IPS. People always think that hunger is…
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 1 2009 (IPS) – Poor sanitation and hygiene costs the Lao People s Democratic Republic 193 million dollars per year, an estimated 5.6 percent of gross domestic product, according to figures from the Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) of the World Bank.
Poor sanitation, including hygiene, causes at least three million preventable diseases and 6,000 prematur…
Suad Hamada
MANAMA, Aug 5 2009 (IPS) – Internet and mobile phones have spawned a new kind of marriage in the Gulf.
Bahraini Youth: gender segregated from childhood Credit: Bahrain Youth Society
Young couples are saying I do via email and text messages in the presence of two witnesses a practice, which like the older informal marriages of Mut a and Misyar, has no legal approval.
Muta a or pleasure in Arabic is a 14-centuries-old marriage custom that is common among Shiites. Misyar, which can be traced to so…
Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Aug 28 2009 (IPS) – Swazi men have very little involvement in caring for newborns and mothers, yet they are critical partners in ensuring their well being.
Getting men involved in maternal and child health care is a serious challenge because of cultural dynamics and practices, said Rejoice Nkambule, the health department s deputy director of public health services.
For example, custom prohibits a Swazi man from physical contact with his newborn baby and its mother for a minimum of six months.
A major grant from the Japan Social Development Fund (JDSF) is now trying to change this. In July, the Japanese government awarded Swaziland $2.57 million over three years to improve maternal and child healthcare programmes in the country. The pr…
TOKYO, Oct 28 2009 (IPS) – One morning nine months ago, Kenji Hamada s colleagues were surprised to find him in their Tokyo office slumped over his desk. They thought he was sleeping, but when he did not wake up after two hours, they realised he was dead.
Tokyo’s Takao Mikoromo Spiritual Temple, where hundreds paid respects last month to…
Jessie Boylan
MCONDECE, Mozambique, Oct 21 2009 (IPS) – This is where we get our water from, says a villager on the footpath leading out of Mcondece. Branches and other debris float on the surface of the sluggish, murky brown creek.
The river at Mtwepe. Credit: Jessie Boylan/IPS
Some baboons are drinking from one end of the pool and a few kids run down to chase them away, then squat by the water s edge, cup their hands and drink noisy mouthfuls.
The road leading to Mcondece, a small community tucked in amongst burnt-back bush and cassava fields in a r…
Dalia Acosta
HAVANA, Jan 25 2010 (IPS) – It was as if she had only closed her eyes for a moment. When Wendy Iriepa came round after surgery over a year ago, she tried to get up as if nothing had happened, but a nurse gently pushed her back into bed. All done? she asked, and the nurse replied, Yes.
I wanted to look at myself, and I managed to feel how I was now. That thing I had had to live with for 33 years of my life was gone for good, Iriepa, a Cuban transsexual who had the sexual reassignment operation approved by the Public Health Ministry in 2008, told IPS.
When they finally removed my bandages, I went to the bathroom and I saw my reflection in a huge mirror. It was the happiest moment of my life. The 16 days I spent in hospital were neither an ordeal nor a fo…