Global women’s health and rights

It is an exciting time as the world becomes united in new ways like Twitter and Facebook to discuss important issues.  Americans for UNFPA is hosting a chat on Twitter today to share ideas about global women’s health and rights. I encourage you to participate by adding #forwomen to the ideas you tweet. You can also watch the conversation at: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23forwomen There is also an article in Women's eNews  http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=4019 Despite Promise, Better Maternal Care Is Unrealized By Anushay Hossain - WeNews commentator    2009 marks the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt. Anushay Hossain says the revolutionary promises to improve women's reproductive health globally must not be forgotten. They discuss the tragic loss of women's lives from pregnancy-related complications, with the vast majority in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The article includes some sad, yet important statistics:    "The Women Deliver Initiative, which works to promote action on maternal and newborn health, estimates that 1 in 8 women die in childbirth in Afghanistan.  In the United States it's 1 in 4,800; in Sweden it's 1 in 20,000.  The fact that these ratios can vary so widely tells us that these deaths are preventable. It comes down to how much we value the lives of the women in our country."   A fact that I feel needs more attention is that The World Health Organization identifies maternal mortality as a major indicator of women's overall position in society. I hope you will join the discussion both here, share your comments, we like to hear your thoughts and ideas and join me on twitter - DebraPBonaro