International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

The government of Sierra Leone has reported success in its battle to reduce maternal mortality rates across the country.

A fall in the number of deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth was announced at a National Maternal Death Review Committee dialogue meeting, reports the Awareness Times.

Pregnant women should be weighed on a regular basis to ensure that babies are not placed at risk of the effects of maternal obesity, it has been claimed.

The calming effect of playing Mozart to premature babies can help them to gain weight, scientists have claimed.

Working on the theory that soothing sounds enable babies to relax and thereby conserve energy, researchers working at Tel Aviv University's School of Medicine played the music of a number of different composers to infants.

Use of prenatal ultrasounds in women with singleton pregnancies has increased by 55 per cent, with a third of mothers-to-be having three or more tests during their second and third trimesters.

Data published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal also revealed that one in five women receive four or more ultrasounds during their second and third trimesters.

New data has highlighted the need for improvements to maternal and newborn healthcare in Morogoro.

Figures from the Tanzanian municipality show that 184 women died due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth in the past five years.

There are significant inequalities between the developed and developing worlds regarding preterm babies' survival chances, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is to study the safety of taking various medications during pregnancy.

According to the body, around two-thirds of pregnant women have taken at least one prescription drug, yet few clinical trials have assessed the safety of such practices.

January 2010 has been declared Cervical Cancer Awareness Month in the US in a bid to raise awareness of the disease and its causes.

The Nigerian Ministry of Health has developed a National Health Strategic Development Plan for 2010, with a focus on maternal health and child mortality.