"It's still, thank heavens, quite rare, " said Debra Bingham, executive director of California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

And Sarah Brown, Global Patron of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, addresses the need for quality maternal health services for all girls and women.

FORBES: The Undeniable Value Of Investing In Girls And Women

Women have traditionally led the fight to improve access to family planning and the provision and quality of maternal health services.

CNN: Men, step up on family planning

Titled "Maternal Gatekeeping, Coparenting Quality, and Fathering Behavior in Families With Infants, " the study found that moms who encouraged their partners in their infant-care efforts tended to have more involved partners regardless of whether the dads believed they should be equally involved in child care.

WSJ: Managing Your Re-Entry to the Work Force After Child Rearing

Levels of all these hormones are also known to be correlated, in the females of at least some species, with the quality of subsequent maternal behaviours such as bonding to newly born offspring.

ECONOMIST: Hormones and fatherhood

The public sector can also work together with corporations and NGOs to organize complementary networks of small and medium enterprises to take on the challenge of increasing the distribution of and demand for quality, affordable products and services to improve maternal and child health.

FORBES: Building a Thriving Marketplace for Life-Saving Commodities

Improving water resource management, increasing access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation and promoting hygiene can improve the quality of life of billions of individuals, as well as reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and cut the incidence of waterborne diseases.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES