Advocates of the Maternal and Child Health Handbook are inviting the public to join a two-day conference that seeks to make the "baby book" more accessible and nuanced to the culture of the communities that use them.
An easy-to-read guide filled with photos and text, the MCH Handbook is a "global standard tool" to improve maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health, according to the Inernational Committee on MCH Handbook.
This year's virtual conference is being hosted from Toronto on Aug. 24 to 25, with the theme "Making Me Visible". It's an acknowledgement of how COVID-19 restrictions have made it harder for pregnant women to access health services. You can register here.
"The MCH Handbook should be seen as one of the most important benefit packages that the government provides for all mothers and children through community health services, health facilities and responsible organizations," the group said in their Bangkok Declaration in 2018.
The International Commitee's aim is in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal of reducing the global mortality rate to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030. The UN seeks to end all preventable deaths of newborns and children under five years old.
According to a draft declaration that will be released on the final day of the conference, the goal is to mobilize world leaders, policy makers, health advocates, and the general public to "leave no one behind" and make sure that the needs of women and children are addressed and their voices are heard.
In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte signed in late 2018 the "Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-Nanay Act," which seeks to provide health and nutrition services to mothers and children during the first 1,000 days of life.
Access the conference program book here, and the two-day schedule of meetings and speakers here. More details are available on the International Conference on MCH Handbook Facebook page.
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