A Doctor's Quest

A doctor grapples with the challenges of mother-and-child health in the developing world.


Recounting medical missions in one-third of the forty-five countries in which she has worked for the past thirty years in Africa, Asia, and, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific, Dr. Gretchen Roedde shares the grim reality of world politics and bureaucratic red tape on the front lines as a doctor in mother-and-child health and HIV/AIDS.


This second edition updates the progress in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH), with additional studies in Afghanistan, Laos, South Sudan, and Nigeria. It tells the stories of the hopes of village women struggling to give birth safely, of their often corrupt leaders, and of countries trying to bring evil despots to justice. Roedde analyzes the
encouraging momentum in global maternal health while maintaining a focus on equity disparities within and between countries.