Accelerating Efforts To Advance The Rights Of Adolescent Girls

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As leaders gather for the fifteen-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action, we, the members of the United Nations Adolescent Girls Task Force, jointly pledge to intensify our efforts to fulfil the human rights of adolescent girls. During the next five years, we will aim to increase our agencies' support to developing countries to advance key policies and programmes that empower the hardest-to-reach adolescent girls, particularly those aged 10 to 14 years.

Many of the 600 million adolescent girls living in developing countries remain invisible in national policies and programmes. Millions live in poverty, are burdened by gender discrimination and inequality, and are subject to multiple forms of violence, abuse, and exploitation, such as child labour, child marriage and other harmful practices. The full potential of these girls and their contribution to their communities have yet to be realized.

We are convinced that educated, healthy and skilled adolescent girls will help build a better future, advance social justice, support economic development, and combat poverty. They will stay in school, marry later, delay childbearing, have healthier children, and earn better incomes that will benefit themselves, their families, communities and nations. Investing in their rights and empowerment will help accelerate the achievement of internationally-agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

We will work with governments, civil society, communities, adolescent girls and boys on five strategic priorities:

1. Educate adolescent girls: Ensure adolescent girls have access to quality education and complete schooling, focusing on their transition from primary to post-primary education and training, including secondary education, and pathways between the formal and non-formal systems.

2. Improve adolescent girls' health: Ensure adolescent girls' access to age-appropriate health and nutrition information and services, including life skills-based sexuality education, HIV prevention, and sexual and reproductive health.

3. Keep adolescent girls free from violence: Prevent and protect girls from all forms of gender-based violence, abuse and exploitation, and ensure that girls who experience violence receive prompt protection, services and access to justice.

4. Promote adolescent girl leaders: Ensure that adolescent girls gain essential economic and social skills and are supported by mentors and resources to participate in community life.

5. Count adolescent girls: Work with partners to collect, analyse, and use data on adolescent girls to advocate for, develop and monitor evidence-based policies and programmes that advance their well-being and realize their human rights.

We will work in a coordinated manner with other relevant global initiatives. We call on Member States to join us in accelerating efforts to protect the rights of adolescent girls. Together, we can build a future of gender equality and social justice.

Source
WHO

Lamaze Credential is More Accessible With New, Expanded Certification Eligibility Criteria

Lamaze International is pleased to introduce expanded eligibility criteria for our three pathways to become a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator (LCCE). Now a broader array of educators and prospective educators can align themselves with Lamaze, the only NCCA-accredited childbirth educator certification. Pregnant women and their families throughout the world recognize Lamaze as the market leader in quality childbirth education.

The new eligibility requirements apply to the April 22 certification exam administration and all subsequent exam dates.

Three pathways offer alternatives based on the candidate’s level of experience and education acquired through multiple sources. For the first time, candidates new to the field have alternative adult learning opportunities that make Lamaze certification more accessible than ever.
Now, new educators may qualify to sit for the Lamaze certification exam in one of two ways. Candidates may qualify by:
* Attending a Lamaze Accredited Childbirth Educator Seminar;

* Completing a self-study from the Lamaze Childbirth Educator Study Guide; and

* Documenting practice teaching with a mentor/observer.
Or, new educators may qualify to sit for the exam after:
* Successfully completing another formal course on teaching childbirth education (including ICEA, Bradley, Birthing from Within, Birth Works, CAPPA, Childbirth International);

* Providing documentation of 25 contact hours of continuing education in the past three years or completing the four Lamaze Childbirth Education Learning modules (available July 1, 2010); and

* Documentation of practice teaching with a mentor/observer.

Lamaze International also welcomes experienced educators to join the ranks of the LCCE Educators, who may qualify by providing documentation of:

* A license as a health care professional (i.e., RN, PT, MD), a Bachelor’s degree or higher, or completion of a childbirth educator formal course;

* 25 applicable and approved continuing education hours within the past three years, attendance of a Lamaze Childbirth Educator Seminar, or completing the four Lamaze Childbirth Education Learning modules (available July 1, 2010); and

* 60 hours of childbirth education teaching experience in the past three years, revised from the 144 hours in the past five years.
Midwives and midwifery students continue to qualify to sit for the exam by attending a one-day Fast Track for Midwives or a Lamaze Childbirth Educator Seminar. Now they can also qualify by providing documentation of:
* Completion of another formal course on teaching childbirth education, including ICEA, Bradley, Birthing from Within, Birth Works, CAPPA, Childbirth International

* 25 contact hours of continuing education in the past three years or completing the four Lamaze Childbirth Education Learning modules (available July 1, 2010.)
More details on these pathways can be found on our Web site, http://www.lamaze.org/.
To earn the LCCE credential, candidates must successfully pass the Lamaze Childbirth Educator Certification Exam, which is internationally recognized as a comprehensive test of the competencies of a childbirth educator. The Lamaze Certification Exam carries the mark of excellence by earning accreditation by the National Commission of Certifying Agencies (NCCA) for meeting its rigorous standards for the accreditation of certification programs. Candidates interested in taking the exam must submit their application and exam fees to the Lamaze Administrative office by the prescribed deadline.

Important
Prepare for the Exam—enhance your knowledge and performance, and obtain contact hours by using the new 2010 edition of the Lamaze Study Guide, the Exam Prep Course and other educational programs. For more details, call our Administrative Office at 202-367-1128, or e-mail certification@lamaze.org.
Additional information about the Lamaze approach to pregnancy, birth and parenting, and the competencies of a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator can be found at www.lamaze.org or by contacting the Lamaze Administrative Office at 202-367-1128 or certification@lamaze.org.

Human placenta cells die after BPA exposure

Exposure to very low concentrations of the plastic monomer bisphenol A (BPA) causes cellular damage and death in cultured human placenta cells, researchers report. The doses used for this study are similar to blood levels found in pregnant women. A particularly worrying finding is that effects were most pronounced at the lowest – rather than the highest – concentrations of BPA indicating that placental development could be particularly sensitive to BPA exposure.  Damage to the placenta can induce a range of adverse pregnancy outcomes including premature birth, preeclampsia or even pregnancy loss.  It is not known if exposure to BPA is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes in humans.
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