‘Stop making sex a taboo’: young people speak out on family planning

On International Women’s Day, young people from Uganda, Ghana, Argentina and Pakistan share their thoughts on sex, health and rights

There’s no such thing as ‘mild’ FGM. It’s still child abuse

Two US gynaecologists argue that some forms of female genital mutilation should be legalised – but as a midwife I know there’s never a justification for this devastating practice

How text messages and volunteer midwives are saving lives in Rwanda

The UN estimates 590,000 children have been saved, with deaths now at 42 per 1,000 births compared with 300 in 1994

Zika outbreak raises fears of rise in deaths from unsafe abortions

Campaigners urge governments in Latin America to rethink bans on abortion and make contraception widely available

Breastfeeding could prevent 800,000 child deaths, Lancet says

Breastfeeding at risk from poor government policies, lack of support for mothers and aggressive formula milk industry, research finds

Family planning is ‘critical link’ in eradicating poverty

Reproductive health experts want more access to modern contraceptives to prevent population bulge that would undermine efforts to tackle global poverty

Zika virus likely to spread throughout the Americas, says WHO

Drug companies evaluate existing vaccine technology as only Canada and Chile expected to be free of mosquito-borne disease

World making barely any progress on preventing stillbirths, says Lancet

It will be more than 160 years before a woman in Africa has the same chance of her baby being born alive as a woman in a rich country, new research claims

Want to know how to deliver a baby? There’s an app for that

Safe Delivery app provides instructions to health workers in remote areas on how to deal with complicated births, to help save the lives of mothers and babies

Humanitarian response treats women’s health ‘as an afterthought’, says the UN

UN population fund says in times of crisis, women and girls are left in precarious situation with lack of pregnancy, childbirth and family planning services