With hopes to bring to light and address ever-present issues on safe pregnancy, child care and women’s health for “women and their families” everywhere, a new series of video conferences is now underway at Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC), to continue through spring 2010.

The first session was held at TDLC on November 18, 2009, connecting Mongolia and Indonesia with Japan. TDLC Manager Ryu Fukui first welcomed all, followed by opening remarks from Kitasato University School of Nursing Lecturer Yae Yoshino.

The floor was then handed over to Dr. Monir Islam, Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Making Pregnancy SaferWorld Health Organization (WHO)’s Department of Making Pregnancy Safer (MPS). Students, medical and nursing professionals, and development and non-profit organization specialists gathered at TDLC’s video conference room as their Mongolian and Indonesian counterparts assembled in Ulaanbaator and at five different locations in Indonesia.

600,000 women are still dying each year from complications in pregnancy, Islam told the conference. “There is no ambiguity about why most of these women are dying. These tragedies are avoidable if women have timely access to quality essential obstetric and emergency care.”

“No more new technology. It is all about quality, coverage and organization of services, to improve maternal and newborn health and survival,” Islam stressed. “We have to organize, scale up, improve quality, and make these services available to every pregnant woman.”

Islam told his audience that focus on new technology development needed to be shifted to strategies to provide essential emergency obstetric care for all women. “Quality facility-based care is the best option to reduce maternal mortality.”

In his presentation, Islam explained a graph comparing what happened to children when a parent died, based on studies in rural Bangladesh. The death of a father was indicated to have little significance on the mortality of either boys or girls, but when a mother died, the mortality rate of a boy doubled, and that of a girl quadrupled. There are social systems and sociocultural factors beyond health systems, Islam said. People take care of a son; a daughter is not as important in some cultures. ”By saving the life of the mother, we can save the child—the family. No more orphans.”

“Infrastructure, social systems, sociocultural factors, educational systems—a lot of things beyond health systems need to be considered,” Islam explained. In answer to a question from a Japanese medical student, he said the WHO is looking at different approaches, strategies, and demand-side financing.

The next session of the lecture series “Women and their Families – Health Services for Pregnancy and Child Care” is currently being organized. Details will soon be posted on this website as they become available.