Global Health Promise collaborates with sex worker organizations and other NGOs on research to understand the most urgent needs of mothers in sex work and their children. This research forms the basis of our programs to support these families. We have recognized the lack of awareness at the national and global level on the maternal health of MSW and the health and social well-being of their children, including reproductive justice. Specifically, we are engaged in efforts to target the upstream factors that produce the dire situations that the mothers and children are faced with, through documenting their maternal health outcomes and the health outcomes of their children, including high incidence of death and ongoing mental health challenges. GHP turns our research into actionable programs and policies to improve the lives of the mothers and their children through community-based participatory research and stakeholder-centered practices. 

The global issue and impact of maternal health of mothers in sex work:

• The majority of MSW in the world become pregnant. 
• It is estimated that 80% of sex workers are mothers.
• The majority of pregnant MSW experience significant barriers to accessing prenatal care.
• In many communities around the world, MSW experience discrimination and stigma when they seek maternal care and obstetric care for safe deliveries, and deliver outside of medical facilities. 
• Complications during and after delivery result in preventable deaths among many MSWs. 
• The deaths are a tragedy for mothers in sex work, as well as for their many children who are subsequently orphaned.

The global impact on children of sex workers:

• Many children of MSW are denied access to the nutrition they need at birth because their mothers have to return to work and cannot breastfeed.
• A large percentage of their children are also physically and sexually abused, face discrimination and stigma at school, are forced into work at an early age, and are sexually exploited. 
• Due to poverty, many of the children do not have access to the same level of health care as other children and have higher risk of malnutrition and other preventable health problems.
• Children of sex workers experience barriers to education and discrimination at school.