Reflecting on 50 Years of Activism in Maternal, Reproductive and Child Health

The public health community mourns the loss of Allan Rosenfield, former dean of the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and a leader in the fight against domestic and international causes of maternal death and disability and HIV/AIDS. In Thailand during the 1960’s, Dr. Rosenfield worked with the Population Council to reform the family planning system, an element of quickly reducing the birth rate and pave the way for further obstetric developments. At Columbia, Dr. Rosenfield created the landmark Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) program to improve the quality, availability and utilization of emergency obstetric care. His seminal 1985 paper "Maternal Mortality - A Neglected Tragedy: Where is the M in MCH?" with Deborah Maine is credited with bringing attention to this health issue and re-energizing the safe motherhood movement. His later work emphasized the importance of Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmittion (PMTCT) and created a new model of HIV/AIDS prevention and care at the International Center for AIDS Program. His work lives on today in organizations like the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, Family Care International and the UN Population Fund. Here at CSIS, the new Global Health Policy Center recently discussed at its launch the role of family planning and reproductive health.

To read Dr. Rosenfield’s obituary, please visit http://www.mailmanschool.org/news/display.asp?id=682.