WEBCAST: Saving Women's Lives: Progress Against Maternal Mortality

Some 830 women die every day from pregnancy-related causes—97 percent of them in developing countries. These deaths are mostly preventable. Women, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia, need more access to quality obstetric care. Women in low-resource settings need greater access to modern contraception, and they need access to safe abortion care. They also need health information and support that reach them where they are.

The international medical community knows what causes maternal mortality and how to prevent it. In fact, there’s been a significant decline in maternal deaths over the last two decades. Yet for far too many women in the places where MSF works, pregnancy-related deaths are an ongoing, everyday emergency. So, what are we doing about it? What progress and innovations have we achieved, and what major challenges remain? Join Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for this live webcast panel discussion to learn more.

At the time of the event, tune in to our webcast here.

Moderator Rachel Jones, Media Consultant and Freelance Writer, has worked as a journalist and media trainer/advisor for the last 20+ years in the US and Africa, for companies and media outlets including The Detroit Free Press, National Public Radio, Internews, the International Center for Journalists and Kenya’s Nation Media Group. During those years, Jones edited and produced news and analysis content on topics including child and reproductive health, international development policy, gender, sustainability and social justice. In both 2015 and 2016, she was recognized as one of LinkedIn's Top 10 Media Writers. Currently, Jones is producing her second feature story for National Geographic Magazine, about the Ebola outbreak response in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her first NatGeo feature focused on maternal mortality in the U.S., and appeared in the January 2019 Global Health Issue. She is also working with Women Deliver's Deliver For Good Kenya initiative, to train Kenyan journalists about how to report on gender equality issues.

Lynn P. Freedman, JD, MPH and professor of population and family health at Columbia University, currently directs the Mailman School's Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) Program, a global program of research, policy analysis, and technical support. Since 1999, AMDD has worked with UN agencies, NGOs, and governments in more than 50 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to reduce maternal mortality. Before joining the faculty at Columbia University in 1990, Professor Freedman worked as a practicing attorney in New York City. Professor Freedman has published widely on issues of maternal mortality and on health and human rights, with a particular focus on gender and women's health. She also serves on the advisory boards of maternal health projects and human rights projects with programs in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

Erika Sawyer, MSF Midwife, is a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) practicing in San Francisco, California. She has completed nine assignments with MSF, almost half of which have been in South Sudan. She has also worked in Central African Republic, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and most recently in Honduras. She is a trainer for both ALSO (Advanced Life Saving in Obstetrics) and SGBV (Sexual and Gender-Based Violence), and has conducted trainings in both Ethiopia and Niger to date.

Liza Ramlow, MSF Midwife, grew up in La Crosse, WI, graduated from Oberlin College and Ohio State University. Liza received her degree in Maternal and Child Health and Nurse Midwifery from Columbia University in New York City. She then did her integration at the Gundersen Clinic in La Crosse and took her first job there as staff midwife. Most of her career was spent building “The Birthplace” at Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, Massachusetts – a full-scope, collaborative midwifery-based OB/GYN practice. Liza “retired” in 2010 to fulfill a longtime desire to work as a midwife in international settings. Liza has completed ten assignments with MSF in Bangladesh, Italy (where she worked on MSF’s search and rescue boat in the Mediterranean), South Sudan, Central African Republic, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, and Nigeria.