Reproductive and Newborn Health

Correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed to: Dr. Marge Koblinsky Director, Public Health Sciences Division ICDDR,B GPO Box 128, Dhaka 1000 Bangladesh Email: [email protected] Fax: +880-2-8826050 A new target—universal access to reproductive health by 2015—was endorsed in October 2006 under Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5) to improve maternal health. And while the international reproductive health community could finally celebrate this official recognition of reproductive health on “centre stage of international efforts to defeat poverty and preventable illness” (1), the field reality is far from the target. What does it take to improve sexual and reproductive healthcare practices, including self-care practices at the home and use of services? Generated by a call for papers on these topics, this issue of the Journal contains selected papers describing current practices, examining specific barriers to improved practices, and providing results of interventions aimed at improving self-care practices or use of services. Most practices described relate to improving maternal and newborn* health or care; only two articles provide information on practices in other sexual and reproductive health areas—one on male sexuality and another on women with HIV/AIDS. No papers were received concerning care-seeking for family planning, menstrual regulation, or abortion care—a red flag perhaps signaling the marginalization of these topics in the current day.