Mame Pentru Mame looks back on Covid-19 challenges for mothers giving birth

Mame Pentru Mame (Mothers for Mothers) advocates for better support for perinatal health and the respect of the rights and dignity of mothers and children around childbirth. During the pandemic, the strategic and pro-active measures they took to protect mothers included putting pressure on government bodies such as the Ministry of Healthcare, to reverse stringent methodologies that separated mothers from their newborns, causing extensive anxiety for a lot of expecting and new mothers in Romania.

You can read their full story and contribution to the OHCHR report here. 

As background, the right to sexual and reproductive health is an integral part of the right to health enshrined in article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It is also a key priority theme for the work of the UN Special Rapporteur, Tlaleng Mofokeng, on the right to physical and mental health.

With her report, the Special Rapporteur aims to shed light on the current status of realization of the right to sexual and reproductive health and the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of related services, during the COVID-19 pandemic and to further develop understanding of the structural and systemic issues preventing all persons from freely and fully enjoying the right to sexual and reproductive health.

The OHCHR received contributions from Member States, National Human Rights Institutions and Civil Society.

Ana Maita, President of Mame Pentru Mame, had already explained the challenges faced by future and new mothers during the Covid-19 crisis in an interview conducted as part of our MMM Voices Covid-19 video series and what Mame Pentru Mame was doing to address those issues – Watch her 2020 interview below.