International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

Indonesia is still on track to achieve its United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - however, infant mortality rate reduction has slowed recently.

A new government report, called 2010 Basic Health Research, has revealed that between 1997 and 2007, the infant death rate dropped but at a slower rate than before, reports the Jakarta Post.

The survival rates of sufferers of breast and ovarian cancer are lower in the UK than in other developed countries around the world, according to a new study.

Cancer patients in Canada, Australia, Sweden, Norway and Denmark are all more likely to survive cancer than their British counterparts, the study of 2.4 million people revealed.

Single embryo transfer during in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment increases the chance of a baby being delivered at full term, a new UK study has revealed.

Women who have IVF with one embryo are nearly five times more likely to have a full-term baby than those who have two implanted, the study, published in the British Medical Journal, found.

Children born to mothers who take folic acid and iron supplements during pregnancy are more likely to be smart, organised and have better motor skills, a new study has revealed.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, US, looked at the effects of giving the supplements during gestation to women in rural Nepal, reports Reuters.

One in three women are not screened for diabetes during their pregnancy, a new study has revealed.

Thousands of women in the US who develop gestational diabetes could go untreated, which puts the lives of them and their unborn babies at risk, according to the study by the American Diabetes Association.

Babies who are breastfed are more likely to be healthy and intelligent, it has been claimed.

Sarah Montagu, admin secretary for the Association of Radical Midwives, added, "it is best from the point of view of preventing obesity", as well.

"I think the benefits are reasonably well propagated in the general population," Ms Montagu said.

HIV infection was the underlying cause of most of the infant mortalities in South Africa this year, the country's health minister said.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) has been made a punishable offence in Switzerland.

The Swiss parliament voted last week to change the penal code in the country, attempting to outlaw the practice, according to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur, reported by M&C.

The rates of infant mortality have dropped in Brazil, bringing the country closer to achieving its United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals.

Health minister Jose Gomes Temporao said, if the number of deaths "stays [on] its present course", the South American nation will actually meet the goal by 2012, three years before the UN target date.

There needs to be more emphasis put on ways to prevent and treat ovarian cancer in order to reduce mortality rates, a new study has suggested.

According to the study by researchers from the Duke University Medical Center, the current screening tests for ovarian cancer only slightly reduce the death rate from the illness.