International Maternal And Child Health

The evaluation of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) by the Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (DCP3) focuses on maternal conditions, childhood illness, and malnutrition. Specifically, the chapters address acute illness and undernutrition in children, principally under age 5. It also covers maternal mortality, morbidity, stillbirth, and influences to pregnancy and pre-pregnancy. Volume 3 focuses on developments since the publication of DCP2 and will also include the transition to older childhood, in particular, the overlap and commonality with the child development volume. The DCP3 evaluation of these conditions produced three key findings: 1. There is significant difficulty in measuring the burden of key conditions such as unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, nonsexually transmitted infections, infertility, and violence against women. 2. Investments in the continuum of care can have significant returns for improved and equitable access, health, poverty, and health systems. 3. There is a large difference in how RMNCH conditions affect different income groups; investments in RMNCH can lessen the disparity in terms of both health and financial risk.

Our current era of globalization, war, and socioeconomic unrest has revealed public health as a worldwide concern and a major frontier for social justice with maternal and child health at its epicenter. Yet, there has been a relative scarcity of training resources specifically dedicated to this crucial area. "Maternal and Child Health: Global Challenges, Programs, and Policies" addresses this gap in current knowledge by analyzing the range of socioeconomic and environmental factors, health care disparities, politics, policies, and cultural practices that impact the health and safety of mothers, as well as the well-being and optimum development of their children. Individual sections focus on unequal distribution of the world’s resources, politics and power, specific disease concerns, programs, policies and emerging concerns with a focus on what is currently being done, and what needs to be done to improve the health status of women, children, and adolescents. The book’s contributors are some of the world’s most respected experts, carefully selected to represent different global geographic regions and diverse professional disciplines related to maternal and child health from both academic and field practice perspectives. Among the topics in this authoritative volume: The impact of war, globalization, gender inequity, and harmful traditional practices (e.g., female genital mutilation). Specific health concerns, including tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, and malnutrition. Child and adolescent health issues, from abuse and neglect to children in difficult circumstances. Pregnancy-related issues: safety, abortion and post-abortion care, teen pregnancy, and more. Strategies for planning, developing, and maintaining maternal and child health systems in developing countries. The status of global initiatives, such as Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses and the Millennium Development Goals. The status of evidence-based maternal and child health in the developing world. With such a wealth of information on both practical and conceptual levels, "Maternal and Child Health: Global Challenges, Programs, and Policies" is as relevant to students and researchers in the field as it is to policy makers and those working for global health and development organizations. It also makes an excellent stand-alone text for courses in global health in general and global maternal and child health in particular.

Maternal and Child Health (MCH) continues to be one of the most important fields of study for improving the health of populations across the globe. Two the 10 Millennium Development Goals strive specifically to improve maternal and child health, and several others, such as gender equality and HIV/AIDS, are critical aspects of Maternal and Child Health. Written for students in public health, medical, and allied health professions, Global Case Studies in Maternal and Child Health brings to life theoretical and conceptual ideas discussed in primary texts, through the analysis of lived stories of maternal and child health programs around the world. Using structured case studies of community-based programs in maternal and child health from around the world, students will be presented with real-life ethical, practical and theoretical challenges that will develop critical and analytical thinking skills and also provide them with practice models that they can use in their future or present work.

This open access edited book brings together new research on the mechanisms by which maternal and reproductive health policies are formed and implemented in diverse locales around the world, from global policy spaces to sites of practice. The authors – both internationally respected anthropologists and new voices – demonstrate the value of ethnography and the utility of reproduction as a lens through which to generate rich insights into professionals’ and lay people’s intimate encounters with policy. Authors look closely at core policy debates in the history of global maternal health across six different continents, including: Women’s use of misoprostol for abortion in Burkina Faso The place of traditional birth attendants in global maternal health Donor-driven maternal health programs in Tanzania Efforts to integrate qualitative evidence in WHO maternal and child health policy-making Anthropologies of Global Maternal and Reproductive Health will engage readers interested in critical conversations about global health policy today. The broad range of foci makes it a valuable resource for teaching in medical anthropology, anthropology of reproduction, and interdisciplinary global health programs. The book will also find readership amongst critical public health scholars, health policy and systems researchers, and global public health practitioners.

"This textbook is written to help health workers treating pregnant women and adolescents, their newborn infants, and children admitted to hospitals in countries all over the world. It is especially aimed at those working in settings in which material and human resources are limited, where borders and infrastructures are insecure, and in rural areas where health workers may find it particularly difficult to work."--Preface.

In the seventh edition of this annual volume of essays on international maternal and child health care, distinguished contributors write on a range of important current issues. Topics covered include maternal health care in developing countries and the repercussions of inadequate maternal health care; breastfeeding and new perspectives on child nutrition; alternative health care approaches in the treatment of working and street children, and child abuse and neglect in Africa.

As women's labor force participation has risen around the globe, scholarly and policy discourse on the ramifications of this employment growth has intensified. This book explores the links between maternal employment and child health using an international perspective that is grounded in economic theory and rigorous empirical methods. Women's labor-market activity affects child health largely because their paid work raises household income, which strengthens families' abilities to finance healthcare needs and nutritious food; however, time away from children could counteract some of the benefits of higher socioeconomic status that spring from maternal employment. New evidence based on data from nine South and Southeast Asian countries illuminates the potential tradeoff between the benefits and challenges families contend with in the face of women's labor-market activity. This book provides new, original evidence on links between maternal employment and children's health using data associated with three indicators of children's nutritional status: birth size, stunting, and wasting. Results support the implementation and enforcement of policy interventions that bolster women's advancement in the labor market and reduce undernutrition among children. Scholars, students, policymakers and all those with an interest in nutritional science, gender, economics of the family, or development economies will find the methodology and original results expounded here both useful and informative.

In recent years, researchers in the field of maternal and child health have tended to neglect or underemphasize both maternal health and social and environmental factors in general. The fifth volume addresses these areas, focusing primarily on women, with special attention to the effects of their status, education, and access to family planning on their own health and that of their children.