This presentation provides an introduction and explores the trends in the five sexual and reproductive health priority areas over the last decades:
Maternal and newborn health, family planning, unsafe abortion, sexually transmitted infections and sexual health.

In recent decades, it has been recognized that maternal health and fetal development plays a critical role in developing diabetes and at the same time, diabetes is an important but often unrecognized contributor to maternal morbidity and mortality. This presentation talks about the links between diabetes and maternal, and child health. Furthermore, it is explored why an intergenerational perspective on diabetes prevention is needed.

What is maternal mortality? Maternal mortality is the risk of a mother to die when she is pregnant. It's the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. This number has decreased enormously in the past century or decades, but the differences between countries are huge. Why do some expecting mothers end up on the road to death, and some on the road to survival? What is needed to read the SDG 3.1, to lower maternal mortality ratio to 70 in the world? For an introduction to why mothers die, and what can be done to prevent these deaths, take a look at this video.
Get transcript for video here: https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/module/58789/overview

“By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births”
Professor Thorkild Tylleskär, CISMAC, CIH, University of Bergen

According to Tylleskär, there have been some improvements in the average levels of maternal mortality world-wide – enough that the topic is no longer being discussed as “high priority”. However, he stresses, this average value does not reflect the unacceptably high levels that remain in Low Income Countries (LIC). Thankfully, he points out that the issues is still included in the Economist’s recent list of “169 Commandments”.

In many LIC, Tylleskär says, a woman’s inherent value still lies in her ability to produce children. He showed a short film to underline the challenges that remain to be addressed. “Why did Mrs X die?” is produced by the WHO and addresses how maternal mortality is connected to the unjust situation of women in low income societies.

View “Why did Mrs X die?”: (2 versions, full and shortened)
Shortened version (~6 min) youtube.com/watch?v=R0mcQ-fF_MY
Full version (~15 min) youtube.com/watch?v=Ugg-ipHnj6U

By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes
PhD candidate Andrea Melberg, CIH, University of Bergen

Melberg underlined that the things that the indicators for reproductive health are measuring are difficult to quantify. For example, the proportion of women with access to the family planning resources they need depends very much on a given woman’s status – married vs unmarried etc. She also highlighted that the process of defining indicators often impacts social processes, which then can become political issues, in turn generating social pressures.

Melberg stresses that concrete quantifiable data is lacking in this area, and measurements are not standardized. She concluded by mentioning the “elephant in the room – abortion”. Abortion is a significant cause of maternal deaths, but data is difficult to collect. She highlights the need to work towards gender equality and women’s health and rights.