We drove up the barely two lane winding road and up into the foggy mist past hillside villages and tea gardens built into the steep cliffs to Darjeeling.  After resting for a few days we drove down winding roads to Bagdora and flew to see my family in Delhi.  From there we took a bus to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal was built in 1631 by the grief-stricken emperor of the Mughal Empire, Shah Jahan as a tribute to his wife Mumraz Mahal who died giving birth to their 14^th child.  Mumraz Mahal  (“the chosen one of the palace”) was the love of his life, his constant companion and trusted confidante.   In their nineteen years of marriage, they had fourteen children together, seven of whom died at birth or at a very young age.

I had visited the Taj Mahal as a child but was not prepared for the majestic splendor of this great monument and tomb of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan.  It is a jewel beyond compare and very moving to behold.  The sorrow he must have felt was palpable and no different from the grief a family feels today from the loss of a mother, a wife or a daughter.

As I stood by her tomb, I could picture Mumtaz lying there dying as her attendants stood by helpless and unable to prevent her death.  I imagined her lying in a pool of blood, though my research did not reveal the actual cause of her death.  Hemorrhage is the most common cause of death in mothers throughout the ages.

Today, maternal hemorrhage remains the most common cause of maternal mortality and is very preventable when women have access to care.  Women continue to die of the same causes because in resource poor countries 80% of mothers deliver without a skilled attendant.

The fact that girls and women are still routinely dying from preventable complications of pregnancy is shocking news – not because this is a new development, but because this is not the kind of news that gets into the press.  In fact, it’s been going on for decades – even centuries.  And those who die are almost always poor and voiceless, buried without a trace.

Women don’t die because they have a disease we cannot treat. We already know how to prevent these deaths.  So, what can we do about it?  Few of us can travel to rural areas in far away countries, even if we have the skills to prevent it.  But we all have a voice.  So the first action you can take is to spread the word.   From there you can support the work of those who are already working to solve these problems.

The SILCS Diaphragm is the first new cervical barrier method that will enter the market in more than a decade. Photo credit: Kessel Marketing

Original post can be found at Impact Blog

“In the early 20th century, distribution of and education about contraceptives were illegal in the United States, leading to the widespread use of ineffective contraceptive methods. This continued until Margaret Sanger visited a Dutch birth control clinic where she learned about diaphragms and thus began a revolution in the United States. The diaphragm was the first safe and effective woman-initiated contraception in much of the world and was widely used in the United States and other countries until the introduction of the birth control pill. While use of the device has decreased over the past 50 years, a comeback may be in the wings.

The SILCS Diaphragm, set to officially launch in Europe this June, is the first new cervical barrier method that will enter the market in more than a decade.

PATH, in collaboration with CONRAD and funded by USAID, designed the one-size-fits-most SILCS Diaphragm to increase access to nonhormonal barrier contraception for women in low-resource settings, as well as developed countries. PATH led a user-centered design process involving input from women, their partners, and providers. The design was then verified in clinical studies by couples in the Dominican Republic, South Africa, Thailand, and the United States. The single size should remove the need for a pelvic exam and fit assessment which are obstacles to both providers and women in many settings. PATH licensed the SILCS design to Kessel Marketing & Vertriebs GmbH of Frankfurt, Germany, who will introduce the device as the Caya™ contoured diaphragm.

While SILCS was developed to expand women’s options for nonhormonal barrier contraception, SILCS has added value due to its potential to be used as a multipurpose prevention technology when paired with tenofovir gel—a product currently in Phase III clinical testing—which is designed to protect women from acquiring HIV.

CONRAD, which owns a license for tenofovir gel, is working on a protocol for a study that will assess the safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of the SILCS plus tenofovir gel. Another study will evaluate the potential of a modified tenofovir gel as a contraceptive by pairing it with the SILCS to assess their ability to prevent sperm from penetrating cervical mucus.

PATH is working with research partners in India, South Africa, and Uganda to identify opportunities and challenges for future introduction of the single-size diaphragm in developing countries. There are 222 million women worldwide who would like to avoid pregnancy but aren’t using a modern method of contraception. Some women are either unable or unwilling to use hormonal contraceptives, and many also have infrequent sex and prefer to use a product that is on demand and woman initiated.

Imagine a world where every child born is planned and their mothers are free of HIV infection. As Louis Armstrong sang, what a wonderful world this could be.”

I commend Mr Bunker Roy for empowering people by giving people the tools they need to help themselves.