Human development

Approximately 30% of teenagers in South Africa report ‘ever having been pregnant’, the majority, unplanned. While this number has decreased over the past few decades, it is still unacceptably high. The figure is for all teenagers. (13-19 years old), but motherhood for an 18 or 19 year old has very different implications than for a young teenager, one aged 15, for example. Therefore this report tries, where possible, to be mindful of differing experiences of pregnancy and motherhood across the teen years.

Superfood for Babies is a global call to action to rediscover the importance of breastfeeding and to support mothers to breastfeed their babies – especially in the poorest communities in the poorest countries.

The four major barriers that prevent mothers from breastfeeding are examined:

A Rapid Mortality Surveillance (RMS) system was established to monitor the trend in the number of deaths recorded on the national population register at a time when there was a substantial time lag in the cause-of-death reports being produced by Stats SA. This report presents an analysis of the RMS data and provides empirical estimates of the mortality-based high-level indicators for Outputs 1 and 2 of the health-related outcomes of the NSDA to highlight the significant changes in mortality currently taking place in South Africa. By adjusting for known bias in the RMS data, it is possible to provide information about these key indicators two years sooner than the published vital registration data.

Adolescents are generally perceived as a healthy age group, and yet 20% of them, in any given year, experience a mental health problem, most commonly depression or anxiety. In many settings, suicide is among the leading causes of death among young people

Mental well-being is fundamental to good quality of life. Happy and confident adolescents are most likely to grow into happy and confident adults, who in turn contribute to the health and well-being of nations (2). Emotional health and well-being among young people have implications for self-esteem, behaviour, attendance at school, educational achievement, social cohesion and future health and life chances

Every year, our State of the World’s Mothers report reminds us of the inextricable link between the well-being of mothers and their children. More than 90 years of experience on the ground have shown us that when mothers have health care, education and economic opportunity, both they and their children have the best chance to survive and thrive.

A global review of the key interventions related to reproductive, maternal, newborn and child Health

Executive Summary

Why reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health?

Poor maternal, newborn and child health remains a significant problem in developing countries. Worldwide, 358 000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth every year and an estimated 7.6 million children die under the age of five. The majority of maternal deaths occur during or immediately after childbirth. The common medical causes for maternal death include bleeding, high blood pressure, prolonged and obstructed labour, infections and unsafe abortions.

The number of children under five years of age dying each year declined from more than 12 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010, UNICEF and the World Health Organization said after releasing the latest estimates on worldwide child mortality.

These new figures show that compared to 1990, around 12,000 more children’s lives are saved each day. 

The annual report on child mortality found that in sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest number of under-five deaths in the world, the speed at which the under-five mortality rate is declining doubled from 1.2 per cent a year during 1990-2000 to 2.4 per cent a year during 2000-2010.

The aim of this study was to assess the quality of counselling provided to mothers through the programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV in South Africa. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study and data collection methods included structured observations of consultations and exit interviews with sixty mothers attending clinics in three purposively selected PMTCT sites across South Africa. One feedback workshop was held in each site with key role players to discuss the findings and to enhance interpretation and understanding.