Time again for our Website of the Week, when we showcase interesting and innovative online destinations.
We recently celebrated Mother's Day here in the United States, and that got us thinking about how important it is that mothers stay healthy. And that got us thinking about the health of women in general. And THAT brought us to our Website of the Week.
JONES: "WomensHealth.gov provides information [from] thousands of federal agency documents, information sheets, funding sources, etc., all related to womens' health."
Wanda Jones is the Deputy US Assistant Secretary for Women's Health, who oversees WomensHealth.gov, a US government website that tries to bring together any and all topics affecting the health of women, including some that you might not immediately think of as health issues.
JONES: "Some of the issues we cover include violence against women, breastfeeding information, healthy pregnancy information, quitting smoking, auto-immune diseases, information about your body, how your body works — your organ systems or your various body parts."
The site also includes the latest health news, tools such as a body mass index calculator and tips on talking with doctors and nurses. For younger women there's a companion site — girlshealth.gov — with lots of help for getting through those difficult years from 10 to 16.
While the site is mainly in English, there is a significant amount of Spanish language content, and even some in Chinese.
The web is full of sites that provide health information, but Wanda Jones points out that unlike many of the others, WomensHealth.gov is paid for by U.S. taxpayers and doesn't accept advertising.
JONES: "We have nothing to sell but health. We may cite studies that have studied one or more commercial products, but in the direct information that is flagged as U.S. government-source information, that information can be trusted to be based on the most credible science. This is a public trust issue."
It's all been carefully vetted by experts. Check it out at WomensHealth.gov, or get the link from our site, voanews.com.