内容摘要：Co-owner Rocio Dominguez offers a treat to Tony, one of her regulars, at Chumbis, an artisanal bakery for animals, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Co-owner Rocio Dominguez offers a treat to Tony, one of her regulars, at Chumbis, an artisanal bakery for animals, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Commonsense Childbirth, which has locations in Orlando and Winter Garden, Florida, offers a small-scale model of European care. It has clinics, a birthing center and training for health professionals.The midwives who run the program welcome vulnerable patients that other practices turn away, such as those who are uninsured or haven’t had prenatal care until late in pregnancy.

Founded by British immigrant Jennie Joseph about 26 years ago, it has never had a maternal death.“We have these four tenets that go with my model: access, connection, knowledge and empowerment,” she said. Some patients “cry because they’ve never had that kind of care or respect.”Joseph’s organization relies heavily on philanthropy, which makes up about half its $3.5 million budget. This allows the clinics to accept patients who can pay little or nothing.

For women with no major health problems, research shows midwifery is cheaper globally than care led by OB-GYNs and leads to fewer medical procedures like C-sections, said Marian Knight, a professor of maternal and child population health at the University of Oxford in England.Some of Commonsense Childbirth’s patients with complications are referred to specialists. Most choose to give birth at a local hospital, where Joseph has forged strong ties. They then return to a midwife for postpartum care.

“It’s Jennie’s National Health Service,” Joseph said with a sly smile.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.The Vatican says the number of nuns globally has been hemorrhaging about 10,000 per year for over a decade, with their numbers at 599,229 at the end of 2022, the last year for which there are statistics. In 2012, there were 702,529 nuns globally.

The new pope will have to address women’s expectations for not only a greater say in church governance, but greater recognition.“We are the great majority of the people of God,” said Maria Lia Zerbino, an Argentine named by Francis to advise the Vatican on bishop nominations, a first for a woman. “It’s a matter of justice. It’s not an achievement of feminism, it’s in the church’s interest.”

Women’s Ordination Conference, which advocates for female priests, goes further. “The exclusion of women from the conclave, and from ordained ministry, is a sin and a scandal,” it said.Gervase Ndyanabo, a prominent lay leader in Uganda, said there should be more participation of the laity and women in the administration of parishes and decision-making at all levels. Progress, he said, has come “at a snail’s speed.”