Nigeria – How preference for male child fuels maternal morbidity, mortality

How preference for male child fuels maternal morbidity, mortality

By Franka Osakwe
29 December 2019

After five un-spaced pregnancies and childbirths, all through Caesarian Section (CS), 35-year-old Ngozi Egbu, a resident of Anambra State still got pregnant again because she was looking for a male child.

During her sixth pregnancy, Egbu developed complications in the seventh month and now fighting for her life at the General Hospital Awka, Anambra State.

Continued: https://guardian.ng/sunday-magazine/how-preference-for-male-child-fuels-maternal-morbidity-mortality/

Nigeria – Desire for male child causing maternal morbidity, mortality

Desire for male child causing maternal morbidity, mortality

By Franka Osakwe
07 December 2019

In Nigeria, quest for male child has resulted in multiple un-spaced pregnancies.

This is one of the reasons why many women are dying during childbirth and lots more developing health problems. Male child preference has given rise to violence against women and girls.

According to EU-UN Spotlight Initiative, discrimination of the girl child is a crime and should be stopped.

Continued: https://guardian.ng/features/focus/desire-for-male-child-causing-maternal-morbidity-mortality/

Women’s bodies have become a battleground in the fight for Iran’s future

Women’s bodies have become a battleground in the fight for Iran’s future
A regressive law to boost the population has restricted the reproductive choices and rights of all Iranian women. Though some suffer more than others.

Zaynab H
29 August 2018

In the early 1990s, Iran had one of best family planning programmes in the developing world. From 1980 to 2010, it managed to cut the average number of children each woman bore from six and a half to two. But these gains have since been reversed and all Iranian women are suffering under regressive legislation passed in 2015. Though, of course, some are suffering more than others.

As a sexual and reproductive health and rights advocate, I have been working with marginalised women's collectives in underserved districts of Tehran for five years. I have seen how laws like The Comprehensive Population and Exaltation of Family Bill (or Bill 315, as it is known) most directly and severely affect the poorest women: sex workers, those with drug abuse issues, rural, migrant and ethnic minority women – those who were highly dependent on state provision of contraception.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/zaynab-h/womens-bodies-battleground-fight-for-iran-future