Postnatal care is essential for all women, their babies, and families during the first few weeks after birth.
Yet, coverage and quality of postnatal care remains suboptimal. We invite those who advocate for improved health and health service experiences for women, newborns, parents, and families to... join efforts for increasing the quality of postnatal care, so that every woman and every newborn receives the care they need to survive and thrive.
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n recent decades, a significant improvement in people’s general health conditions has occurred, leading to an increase in life expectancy at birth in most countries in the Region of the Americas. This progress has been the result of both health technology advances – antibiotics, vaccines, and ot...her treatments – and improvements in the conditions in which people live, including increased access to improved drinking water and sanitation, and health services. Nevertheless, progress has slowed in recent years, and achievements have varied among countries and territories, as well as within them. In the journey toward universal health, it is essential to have the ability to monitor and assess progress in terms of the ultimate goal of health systems: improving the health and well-being of populations. To this end, this edition of Health in the Americas analyzes the standardized rate of potentially avoidable premature mortality as an indicator of health system performance, considering both its preventable component through public and intersectoral health interventions, as well as the treatable component, related to the effectiveness of health services, that is, the quality of health care. The analysis of potentially avoidable premature mortality provides a metric for comparing and tracking performance over time.
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En los últimos decenios, el estado general de salud de las personas ha mejorado considerablemente, lo que ha llevado a un aumento de la esperanza de vida al nacer en la mayor parte de los países de la Región de las Américas. Este progreso ha sido el resultado tanto de los avances en las tecnolog...ías sanitarias (antibióticos, vacunas y otros tipos de tratamiento) como de las mejoras en las condiciones en que viven las personas, incluido un mayor acceso al agua potable y el saneamiento mejorados, y a servicios de salud. Sin embargo, el progreso ha aminorado en los últimos años, y los logros han variado entre los países y territorios, así como dentro de ellos. En el camino hacia la salud universal, es esencial tener la capacidad para evaluar el progreso y darle seguimiento de acuerdo con el objetivo fundamental de los sistemas de salud, que es mejorar la salud y el bienestar de la población. Con ese fin, en esta edición de Salud en las Américas se analiza la tasa estandarizada de mortalidad prematura potencialmente evitable como indicador del desempeño de los sistemas de salud, teniendo en cuenta tanto el componente prevenible por medio de intervenciones intersectoriales y de salud pública como el componente tratable, relacionado con la efectividad de los servicios de salud, es decir, la calidad de la atención de salud.
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In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), one maternal death was registered every hour in 2020. That same year, the trend in the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) for the Region of the Americas regressed alarmingly and unprecedentedly to the levels seen two decades ago. In addition to indicating a wors...ening of health outcomes, these figures also signal a deepening of inequalities, representing thousands of individual, unacceptable tragedies that in most cases could have been preventable. Maternal death is the result of a multifactorial process in which structural elements such as the economic system, environmental conditions, and culture interact. Other factors related to social inequality are also present, such as racism, poverty, gender inequality, and lack of access to the education system. The current situation calls for urgent mobilization of the health systems of LAC countries in order to strengthen efforts to combat maternal mortality, especially in countries that are still far from achieving the SHAA2030 regional target. For this reason, a preventive, health-promoting, life-course-based approach is needed, with models of care centered on women, families, and the community Scientific evidence shows that health systems with a solid foundation in primary health care (PHC) achieve better outcomes, greater equity, and reduced health expenditures. To address this, PAHO proposes a strategy, aimed primarily at women who are in the most vulnerable situation, who are the ones who represent the greatest burden of maternal mortality, to accelerate the reduction of maternal mortality in the Region of the Americas, based on the expansion and strengthening of PHC.
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En el año 2020 se registró una muerte materna cada hora en América Latina y el Caribe (ALC). Ese mismo año, la tendencia de la razón de mortalidad materna (RMM) en la Región de las Américas retrocedió de manera alarmante e inaudita a los niveles de hace veinte años. Estas cifras no solo imp...lican un empeoramiento en los resultados, sino una profundización de las desigualdades, lo que representa miles de tragedias individuales e inaceptables que en la mayoría de los casos serían evitables. La muerte materna es el resultado de un proceso multifactorial donde interactúan elementos estructurales como el sistema económico, las condiciones ambientales y la cultura. Además, intervienen otros factores relativos a la desigualdad social, como el racismo, la pobreza, la desigualdad de género y la falta de acceso al sistema educativo
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En el año 2020 se registró una muerte materna cada hora en América Latina y el Caribe (ALC). Ese mismo año, la tendencia de la razón de mortalidad materna (RMM) en la Región de las Américas retrocedió de manera alarmante e inaudita a los niveles de hace veinte años. Estas cifras no solo imp...lican un empeoramiento en los resultados, sino una profundización de las desigualdades, lo que representa miles de tragedias individuales e inaceptables que en la mayoría de los casos serían evitables. La muerte materna es el resultado de un proceso multifactorial donde interactúan elementos estructurales como el sistema económico, las condiciones ambientales y la cultura. Además, intervienen otros factores relativos a la desigualdad social, como el racismo, la pobreza, la desigualdad de género y la falta de acceso al sistema educativo
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This document provides a list of key WHO-recommended maternal and newborn health commodities and aims to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. It consolidates the key and enabling commodities from existing WHO guidelines on maternal and newborn health.
1.1 Why this course is needed
The first few hours and days of a newborn baby’s life are a critical window for establishing breastfeeding and for providing mothers with the support they need to breastfeed successfully. Since 1991, the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) has helped to motivate... facilities providing maternity and newborn baby services worldwide to better support breastfeeding. It has been adopted by many countries and organizations. The BFHI aims to provide a health-care environment that supports mothers to acquire the skills necessary to exclusively breastfeed for six months, and to continue breastfeeding for two years or beyond.
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Available in English, French and Spanish
Todo el personal de salud que presta servicios de atención a las mujeres, los bebés y las familias durante el período prenatal y posnatal tiene una función primordial en el establecimiento de la lactancia y su continuación. Este curso brinda a los profesionales de salud las habilidades bás...icas de asesoramiento para que puedan ayudar a las madres y los cuidadores. Los materiales incluyen módulos relacionados con las habilidades de asesoramiento, las prácticas de lactancia materna y alimentación de los lactantes, el apoyo a la lactancia materna y los procedimientos gerenciales. Los participantes no necesitan conocimientos previos sobre lactancia materna.
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This manual and its Excel tool are under revision. The revised edition will be published soon.
Este manual y la herramienta de Excel que lo acompaña se encuentran en proceso de revisión. La edición revisada se publicará próximamente.
Pregnancy and childbirth during adolescence profoundly affects the lives of millions of girls worldwide, and is a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity, and infant and child mortality. Every year, an estimated 21 million girls aged 15–19 years old in low- and middle-income countries be...come pregnant, and approximately 12 million give birth.
For many adolescent girls, the ability to control their sexual lives remains limited. Long-standing gender inequalities and discrimination, marginalization, harmful social and gender norms, and denial of rights, compounded by poverty and violence, render them vulnerable to early pregnancy, HIV and other health threats. Lack of age-appropriate sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) information and services create additional barriers to care and support; as a result, adolescent girls who become pregnant are much more likely to go on to have rapid repeated births.
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Evidence- and rights-based national policies, guidelines and legislation play a key role in improving sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (SRMNCAH), framing the enabling environment for equitable provision and accessibility of quality services. The SRMNCAH policy sur...vey monitors the existence of national SRMNCAH laws, policies, strategies and guidelines and the extent to which they are aligned with WHO recommendations on SRMNCAH. This publication reports on the findings from the 2023 WHO SRMNCAH policy survey.
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An advanced-midwife's guide to labour and delivery. An online learning course
To provide a foundation for the strategic policy and programme development needed to ensure the sustainable implementation of effective interventions for reducing the global burden of PPH
A Learning Programme for Professionals