News

May 28, 2010

Melinda Gates on Maternal Health Innovations

Melinda Gates talks about her recent trip to India and Malawi and the amazing social innovations that are saving the lives of women and children

Advances in Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in India and Malawi

Earlier this year, I traveled to India and Malawi on two learning trips to see remarkable social innovations saving the lives of women and children. These video slideshows take you behind the scenes on my trips to see this lifesaving work.

Click here to view video slideshows

At a research site in Raebareli, one of the most remote parts of India, I got to talk with some of the young women, but also the mothers-in-law.

One of them talked to me about the fact that she had eight children, and six of them had died. She said, "I know now the reason that six of them died. I cut the cord with a sickle from the field." And she said, "Once I learned to use a clean razor blade, two of my children lived. And I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen to my daughter-in-law and the other women in this village."

That's the power of getting women together to talk about how cultural practices make a big difference.

A lot of people think that our foundation is about innovations in science and technology and biotechnology, and that’s absolutely true. But we also believe that there’s another type of innovation that is just as important, and that is social and cultural change. We need to talk to women in a way that appreciates their culture, but also helps them understand what will keep their children alive.

Through gathering women together and talking with them about cultural practice—that if you teach women to not wash their baby when it’s first born, to keep that baby wrapped up and warm, and put it on their chest and "kangaroo care" it—they have literally decreased infant mortality in this district by 54 percent over 18 months.

Click here to read more and see video slideshows

NEWS ARCHIVE

2009
Gates Foundation Living Proof
Leaders Demand Action on MDG 5
Women Demand Action to Save Mothers
High Level UN Event for Maternal Health
It Girl, Vogue
"We Need a Global Fund for Moms," Huffin
Giant Magazine's Most Influential People
Liya Addresses UN Forum
Liya meets with Congressional Leaders on
Liya on Plum TV's Giving
Liya on the Today Show
"When Mothers Die," Giving Beast
Liya Joins Huffington Post
Liya Profiled in SOHO House

2008
Liya Visits Earthquake Devastated China
"She Who Cares Wins," Vogue Australia
Adolescent Girls Initiative
Women Leaders Dinner
Champions for an HIV Free Generation

2007
Liya Receives Orphan Ranger Award
Liya Featured on Al Jazeera's Riz Khan
Liya Speaks at the National Press Club
Deliver Now! Saving 77 Million by 2015
"Liya Rising," Vanity Fair
Liya Featured on CNN's Revealed
LKF Mother's Day Campaign
Liya Receives the Smart Cookie Award
Meeting of Women Parliamentarians
Liya in Marie Claire
Liya on Good Morning America

2006
Liya on the Oprah Winfrey Show
Liya in Self Magazine
LKF and Worldwide Orphans Foundation
WHO Highlights Impact of Fistula
A Message from Liya to the WHO
"Saving Mothers," Essence Magazine

2005
Liya in New York Times Style Magazine
Liya Kebede Addresses the UN
Liya Kebede Named Goodwill Ambassador