Maternal and Child Health Essay

Maternal and Child Health Essay

Maternal and Child Health Essay

Identify a historical event that interests you and that, you think, has something to do with maternal and childhood health today. Please elaborate on that connection, and on why that particular historical event interests you in the first and then Identify what role you would like to take on to address the health issue and describe the objectives and responsibility of the role.  Maternal and Child Health Essay

Coulibaly, et al. examine breast feeding patterns for mothers based on family income and then examine the data for effects on children’s health. The results are in-line with other studies which show that women from higher income groups are more likely to breast feed their babies and to breast feed them for longer durations. Further, the study found that breast feeding regardless of income group, reduced the number of chronic health problems in the infant children and the number of hospital visits.

The benefits of breast feeding are well documented with regards to infants’ health, growth, immunity, and development. According to data assembled by Healthy People 2010, breastfeeding decreases the number of cases and severity of diarrhea, respiratory infections, and ear infections. Further, breast feeding saves mothers and families the additional costs of infant formula and thus is more economical than bottle feeding. Despite these advantages Coulibaly et al. and other authors frequently show that low income households and demographics that traditionally are indicators of lower incomes (African Americans and lower educated women) have lower rates of breast feeding than higher income families and demographic groups traditionally associated with higher incomes (white non-hispanics and college educated women). Healthy People 2010 aims to increase rates of breast feeding to 75% in the early postpartum period, 50% for the first 6 months, and 25 percent for the first year. To meet these goals, more lower income women will need to breast feed their infant children. Maternal and Child Health Essay

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The facts uncovered by the article and also those cited by Healthy People 2010 with regard to breast feeding rates and income status are counter intuitive. On the surface it would seem that poor women and families would not be able to afford the convenience of bottle feeding and would therefore have higher rates of breastfeeding than their higher income counterparts. However, this is not the case and therefore breastfeeding rates must not be directly related to income. Instead other variables must be restricting lower income women from breastfeeding.

It is commonly believed that the benefits of breastfeeding may not be widely understood and that educational efforts would increase breastfeeding rates. This has likely been true and advertisements on city busses and involvement of community health workers and social workers are likely largely responsible for the increase in breast feeding rates that have been documented by healthy people 2010. However to meet the goals of Healthy People 2010, I believe that more action is required to address issues that are likely holding back many mothers from breast feeding their infant children. Maternal and Child Health Essay

It is my belief that one of the main impediments for mothers thinking about breastfeeding is their job. The data by healthy people 2010 that shows over 60% of women currently breastfeed their children during the postpartum period – when they are most likely to be on maternity leave – as well as the precipitous drop in breast feeding rates to 29% at 6 months and 16% at 1 year – after mothers have gone back to work – support this hypothesis. I also believe that lower income earning women are more hampered by their jobs then women from higher incomes. I believe this to be the case since many lower income work in service related industries as cashier’s or other industries where there are limited private spaces for them to use a breast pump or refrigerate their pumped milk. Further, lower income women are more likely to be considered “expendable employees” due to their lack of work place skills. In comparison, many women working in office settings have access to quiet rooms with refrigerators and are working on important projects to their employers and cannot be easily replaced. Maternal and Child Health Essay

Thus, to meet the goals of Healthy People 2010, health professionals need to work with governmental leaders to help them understand the importance of this issue in reducing our nation’s health care costs. All places of business should be forced to establish a “quiet room” where a women can use a breast pump in privacy and then store her milk until her shift is complete. Further, mothers that return to the work force must be guaranteed work brakes at appropriate intervals to the age of their infant children to maximize the milk pumped. Many employers of low income women will likely never establish a environment that is friendly to the breastfeeding mother without both governmental penalties for failure to comply and incentives to encourage compliance. Maternal and Child Health Essay

This article prompted me to think about the data on breastfeeding versus economic level and reflect on my own observations. As a immigrant to this country, I have many friends that at times tried to balance raising a small infants while working a low paying jobs. I have observed their work facilities in parking garages, retail stores, etc. and now understand that they did not have proper facilities for them to operate a breast pump in privacy and store the product milk. Also, because I also have worked some of these same jobs, I know that often I was grateful to have the job and often felt intimidated to ask my manager, many times as that was what the manager wanted me to feel, for anything special. Thus, I understand how difficult it is for women struggling in these jobs and trying to support their baby to ask for things not available at their work place. Maternal and Child Health Essay

Because of these experiences, I believe that that many of the restrictions to breastfeeding by low income mothers will not go away without government regulations and protections. Healthy People 2010 is right to set the goals to increase breastfeeding, but to achieve it health professionals like ourselves now need to educate our government leaders.

The most important indicators of a community’s overall health are maternal, infant and child health. It deals with the health of women of childbearing age from pre-pregnancy, labor, delivery and the postpartum period and the health of the child prior to birth up the adolescence (McKenzie & Pinger, 2015, p.192). The health data that is collected towards maternal, infant and child health are used to see the effectiveness of disease prevention and health promotion services in a community. Prenatal health care is one of the fundamentals of a safe pregnancy. An infant’s health mostly depends on the mother. A child’s during the ages of one to nine are very important to the child’s development and the future (McKenzie & Pinger, 2015, p.217). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends vaccinating children against most vaccine-preventable diseases early in life. One of the community programs for Women, Infants and Children are maternal and child health bureau, which is in charge with the responsibility for promoting and improving the health of our nations mothers and children. Another is woman, infants and children program, which is a clinic-based program designed to provide a variety of nutritional health related goods and services to pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding  Maternal and Child Health Essay
A term used for elders is aged, which is having reached a specific age (McKenzie & Pinger, 2015, p.273). Another term used for elders is aging, which means getting older. Some elders live in assisted-living facilities, which provides an alternative to long-term care in a nursing hoe. They also can live in retirement communities, which are areas that have been specifically developed for those in their retirement years (McKenzie & Pinger, 2015, p.288). For elders, health care is a major issue for them. Since they are older, they develop more health problems and that causes them to use the health care system
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The health of children is reflective of the overall health of a nation, and has many implications for the nation’s future as these children grow into adults. Children’s long-term health and development can be highly influenced by early life events, beginning even before birth with the health of their mother. Effective policies and programs are important for ensuring the health of women before, during and after pregnancy to optimize both maternal and infant outcomes. Additionally, minimizing adverse birth and infant outcomes is critical to mitigating risk factors for disease later in life. However, the health and health care needs of mothers and infants change over time, and current data on these issues is critically important as policy makers and program planners seek to improve the health of children, now and into the future.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

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Research suggests that efforts to improve pregnancy outcomes and the health of mothers and infants may be most effective if they begin before a woman is pregnant. It is important to establish healthy behaviors and achieve optimal health before pregnancy, as many women are not aware of their pregnancy until several weeks or more after conception. In 2009–2010, about one in four recent mothers in a 30-state area reported binge drinking (consuming 4 or more drinks in a sitting) at least once within 3 months prior to pregnancy and 24.2 percent reported smoking during the same time period. Both smoking and alcohol use during pregnancy have been associated with adverse birth outcomes, including preterm birth and low birth weight.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

In 2011, 11.73 percent of infants were born preterm and 8.10 were born at low birth weight. Preterm birth and low birth weight have been associated with a range of short- and long-term consequences for children’s health and development. The prevalence of both preterm and low birth weight births varies by race and ethnicity, with infants born to non-Hispanic Black mothers most likely to experience either of these outcomes. Although both preterm and low birth weight increased through the middle of the last decade, the prevalence of both indicators has declined since.

Diabetes and hypertension are the most commonly reported health conditions among pregnant women and pose health risks to both a woman and her baby. In 2010, chronic or per-existing diabetes was reported in 7.0 per 1,000 live births, while gestational diabetes was reported in 44.2 per 1,000 live births and chronic and pregnancy-associated hypertension were reported in 12.7 and 43.4 per 1,000 live births, respectively. Maternal morbidity—or illness—is significantly more common than maternal mortality. Nonetheless, in 2006-2008, the latest years for which data are available, a total of 1,953 maternal deaths were found to be pregnancy-related, for a rate of 15.2 deaths per 100,000 live births. These include deaths which occurred during or within one year after the end of a pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes such as injury. Pregnancy-related mortality is more common among non-Hispanic Black mothers and older mothers.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

A number of perinatal risk factors and behaviors can affect both the health of the mother and the infant. Gaining too much or too little weight during pregnancy can result in immediate and long-term health risks to a woman and her infant. Among recent mothers in 2009– 2010, only about 1 in 3 or 31.5 percent gained the recommended amount of weight and nearly half (47.1 percent) gained an excessive amount of weight during pregnancy. About one in five women (21.4 percent) gained an inadequate amount of weight in pregnancy. Excessive weight gain may increase the risk of pregnancy complications, cesarean delivery, larger infant birth weight, and postpartum weight retention. Experiencing stressful events or environmental hardships, such as financial instability, the death of a loved one, or divorce, while pregnant can place an additional strain on a woman and increase her likelihood of adverse birth outcomes, including preterm birth and low birth weight. In 2009-2010, nearly three-fourths of recent mothers in a 30-state reporting area reported that they had experienced at least one stressful event in the 12 months prior to delivery of their child. Intimate partner violence, including physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, before and during pregnancy has also been associated with adverse maternal and infant outcomes. In 2009-2010, approximately 4 percent of recent mothers reported that they had been pushed, hit, slapped, kicked, choked, or physically hurt in some other way by an intimate partner in the 12 months prior to becoming pregnant and 3.2 percent reported experiencing this type of abuse during their most recent pregnancy.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

Health behaviors after a baby is born are also important to ensuring optimal health and development. Safe sleep behaviors are practices that reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and sleep-related suffocation. In 2009, SIDS and other sleep-related infant deaths accounted for 15.1 percent of all infant deaths. To reduce the risk of SIDS, it is recommended that infants be placed on their backs for every sleep until 1 year of age. In 2009-2010, 70.5 percent of recent mothers in a 30-state area reported that their infant was laid down to sleep on his or her back most of the time. Maternal and Child Health Essay

The health care utilization rates, programs, and policies described in Child Health USA can help policymakers and public health officials better understand current trends in pediatric health and wellness and determine what programs might be needed to further improve the public’s health. These indicators can also help identify positive health outcomes which may allow public health professionals to draw upon the experiences of programs that have achieved success. The health of our mothers and infants relies on effective public health efforts that include ensuring access to early and adequate prenatal care and related counseling as well as post-partum and well-baby care, providing vaccinations against preventable diseases, and supporting the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based programs to promote optimal maternal and infant health outcomes. Such preventive efforts and health promotion activities are vital to the continued improvement of the health and well-being of America’s children and families.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay Maternal and Child Health Essay

Maternal and Reproductive Health
Save the Children works to improve maternal, newborn, infant and child health (MNCH) and survival in the most vulnerable communities around the world. Through global and local efforts, from 1990 to 2015, the global maternal mortality ratio declined by 44 percent – from 385 deaths to 216 deaths per 100,000 live births (UN inter-agency estimates). In 2017, data showed that contraceptive use prevents 308 million unintended pregnancies every year among women of reproductive age in the developing world. Globally, an estimated 214 million women and girls in the developing world have an unmet need for family planning (FP) services. Fully meeting the unmet need for modern contraception would result in an estimated 76,000 fewer maternal deaths each year. 1

Additionally, 21 million adolescent girls, aged 15 – 19, get pregnant annually and are at a higher risk of adverse outcomes for themselves and their babies than women over 20. Addressing their unmet need by increasing their access to modern methods of contraception and creating a supportive health care system – enabling policies and community environments for safer pregnancies for adolescents – would prevent an additional 79,000 maternal deaths.

Save the Children recognizes the significant contributions maternal health (MH) and family planning (FP) have on the health and development of children. Our work aims to prevent and/or reduce maternal and newborn complications and deaths mainly attributed to preventable causes such as hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, sepsis and post-partum hemorrhage and birth asphyxia, prematurity and neonatal sepsis respectively. We work with local partners, health workers and communities to mobilize resources for health services, promote healthy behaviors and practices, improve access and utilization of quality maternal health through evidence based intervention during antenatal care, providing respective care around time of birth, post-natal and post-partum care. We leverage existing local and national government structures, strengthen health systems both in communities and facilities and ensure availability, access and use of lifesaving basic emergency obstetric and newborn care services. Our FP work focuses on providing FP information and services to help girls delay childbearing, and to help women and couples to plan and space their pregnancies for improved health outcomes. Maternal and Child Health Essay

Maternal and Reproductive Health Program Goals:
Create a supportive environment for the use of modern contraception for all girls and women who need them.
Increase access to, improve the quality of and generate demand for family planning FP services, particularly among the hardest to reach communities, including the urban poor, youth, postpartum women and populations in emergency settings and those in transition.
Strengthen local delivery of FP education and services, especially to adolescents. Examples include training community health workers to provide a wide range of methods including injectable contraception.
Improve policies, enhance systems and services, and build local capacity for health care providers to provide respectful maternity care to all girls and women.
Increase access to and improve the quality of antenatal and postnatal care services and skilled attendance at birth.
Understand and overcome practical and cultural barriers to better reproductive health, breastfeeding and infant care practices by communities and health care providers. Maternal and Child Health Essay
Improve health systems’ capacity to deliver quality family planning FP and maternal newborn health (MNH) programs and policies.
Maternal and Reproductive Health Program Highlights:
The MaMoni Health Systems Strengthening (MaMoni HSS) Project is a five-year (2013-2018) USAID-funded award aimed at improving utilization of integrated MNCH, FP and nutrition services through a health systems strengthening approach in Bangladesh. MaMoni HSS key activities include improving service-readiness through critical gap management; strengthening health systems at the district level and below; and identifying and reducing barriers to health service accessibility and use. Selected key interventions supported by the project include: antenatal care services; safe childbirth; nationwide scale-up of chlorhexidine (antiseptic) for newborn cord care; essential newborn care including resuscitation; basic and comprehensive obstetric and newborn care; postnatal care for mother and baby; management of sick newborns through “Special Newborn Care Units” and outpatient treatment; Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC); FP including postpartum family planning, maternal, infant and young child nutrition; and strengthened referral linkages between communities and health facilities in six project districts. MaMoni HSS also supports the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) Quality, Equity and Dignity initiative to operationalize and rollout quality improvement processes at clinics and hospitals.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay
The Strengthening National Midwifery Programme (SNMP) 2017-2018 works to improve the quality of evidence-based instruction and care in 38 primary clinical sites, in collaboration with UNFPA and the Government of Bangladesh. The program supports midwife-led care, including routine obstetric and newborn care and initial stabilization of emergencies at targeted Upazila Health Complexes prior to referral. In addition, SNMP strengthens evidence-based routine obstetric and newborn care practices at medical colleges and district hospitals that function as primary clinical education sites for midwives.
The USAID-funded Fertility Awareness for Community Transformation (FACT) Project is a research, intervention, and technical assistance project led by Georgetown University’s Institute for Reproductive Health in partnership with Save the Children and the International Center for Research on Women. The FACT project aims to reduce the high unmet need of youth, postpartum women, and couples for FP in Uganda and Nepal through developing and testing innovative interventions to investigate two primary hypotheses: (1) Increased fertility awareness improves FP use; and (2) Expanded access to fertility awareness-based methods (FAM) increases uptake of FP and reduces unintended pregnancies. Maternal and Child Health Essay

The USAID Services de Santé à Grand Impact project works in partnership with the Government of Mali, NGOs — both international and local — and communities in several target regions in Mali to reduce the preventable causes of maternal, newborn, and child mortality. Funded by USAID/MALI, this five-year (2014-2019) project is implemented by a consortium of organizations including Jhpiego, Population Services International Management Systems International, Groupe Pivot Santé /Population (GP/SP), and the Fédération Nationale des Associations de Santé Communautaire (FENASCOM) under the leadership of Save the Children. The project aims to increase the long-term use of quality, high-impact health services and practices from households to health facilities. The intervention areas of the project include maternal, newborn, and child health; malaria; reproductive health and FP; HIV/AIDS; nutrition; water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); and health systems strengthening.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay
The Contraception Without Borders Project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, works in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and BBC Media Action to increase use of FP among (semi-) nomadic communities, from the standpoints of both supply and demand, in six sub-counties located in Wajir and Mandera in northeastern Kenya. The project will also engage regional stakeholders throughout its four-year duration in sharing lessons on effective, scalable approaches to increase FP use among nomadic populations. Maternal and Child Health Essay
Save the Children’s My First Baby (MFB) project addresses the reproductive health needs of adolescent first-time mothers and mothers-to-be. In Nepal, where early child marriage is a common practice, most first time mothers are adolescent girls who are forced to leave their schooling and families and have limited access to and information on reproductive healthcare; healthy child care practices; and health facilities for antenatal, delivery, and postpartum care. To reach this often neglected population, Save the Children piloted MFB in Kapilvastu and Pyuthan districts in Nepal to improve married adolescent girls’ reproductive health knowledge, skills, and behaviors. Married Adolescent Girls groups receive counseling through peer-facilitated sessions that cover topics related to nutrition, hygiene, sanitation, fertility, pregnancy, birth preparedness, contraception, breastfeeding, and infant care. The MFB project has since been adapted for First Time Parents in Mozambique, Madagascar, and Nigeria.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay
The Household-to-Hospital Continuum of Care (HHCC) project, funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, sought to promote preventive household and community practices and improve the quality, accessibility, and utilization of facility-based maternal and newborn health services in eight provinces in Vietnam. The HHCC approach is a comprehensive model to improve maternal and newborn health through linking households, communities, Community Health Centers, and district and provincial hospitals together. In its third phase of implementation, the project is working to scale-up the model’s best practices and effective interventions to pre-service training countrywide. The HHCC model has informed programming in several other countries including Bangladesh, Malawi, Uganda and Mali. Maternal and Child Health Essay
The Strengthening Care for Preterm Babies in Urban Hospitals in Kenya project strengthens the skills and capacity of health providers in seven hospitals located in Langata Sub–County, Nairobi, Kenya, so that they can deliver higher quality care to preterm and low-birth-weight babies. The project strengthens Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) services in the seven hospitals, and reaches surrounding communities with communication on the importance of seeking care for preterm babies.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay
Our Johnson & Johnson-funded portfolio of programs focuses on strengthening newborn care in Malawi, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Bangladesh. The Uganda/Malawi project initially worked to reduce neonatal mortality due to birth asphyxia through improving neonatal resuscitation at different health service delivery levels, within the context of integrated MNH services, and eventually expanded the package to include essential newborn care as well as care for small and/or sick babies. Ethiopia and Nigeria are part of the Survive & Thrive Global Development Alliance’s “Saving 100,000 Babies Initiative,” which pledges to save 100,000 babies in the three countries that contribute most to neonatal deaths—Ethiopia, Nigeria, and India. These projects help scale-up quality life-saving interventions for newborns including basic newborn care, newborn resuscitation, management of newborn sepsis, and care for low birth weight babies including preterm births. As the latest addition to the J&J portfolio, the Bangladesh project aims to contribute to ending preventable newborn deaths due to pre-term/small newborns in select hospitals targeting the urban poor in Dhaka.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay
Improving the health and well-being of mothers and young children is an important societal goal. Pregnancy and early life are critical times to ensure healthy development, address health risks, and prevent future problems for women and their children.

Why It’s Important
Data shows that maternal and child health in the United States is much worse than it should be for a wealthy country with advanced health care services. A significant number of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned impacting maternal and infant health and family economic prosperity. Maternal and infant mortality rates are high, and trends are moving in the wrong direction. Maternal mortality in United States has more than doubled since 1987 and many women have complications during and after pregnancy, including 1 in 10 women who experience pregnancy-related depression. Over 23,000 infants died before the age of 1 in the United States in 2016. For each of these indicators, racially and ethnically diverse families and low-income families are more highly impacted than other families. Because maternal and child health is impacted by a confluence of health care, social, and economic issues, multifaceted approaches are needed to improve maternal and child health.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

Considerations for State Policymakers
Federal resources to support maternal and child health are provided to states through Maternal and Child Health Block Grants; Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program; investments in Federally Qualified Health Centers; and Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program. In addition to these federal resources, states have flexibility to design, implement, and fund policies and programs to meet the unique needs of women and children in the state.

1. Help women and families prevent unplanned pregnancies

About half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. Research has shown that women and children are healthier, achieve better educational outcomes, and have greater financial stability when children are born as a result of a planned pregnancy. States can act to prevent unplanned pregnancies through several strategies.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

Provide education about the importance of planned pregnancy through various state agencies and programs using multiple modalities including in-person, peer networks, mass and social media. The Community College System in Mississippi, under direction from the legislature, has an unplanned pregnancy prevention action plan and includes unplanned pregnancy prevention materials in student orientation and academic course materials, when appropriate.
Increase access to contraception through comprehensive, statewide plans like in Delaware and Colorado to increase access to the full range of contraceptive methods—including long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs)—for all women and provide training and technical assistance to health care providers across the state. States can change Medicaid program rules and incent private insurers to remove barriers to LARCs, such as prior authorization, and offer providers reimbursement for contraceptive screening, counseling, provision, and follow-up.
2. Act to reduce maternal and infant deaths and complications

The causes of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity are multifaceted and complex and therefore require collaboration among multiple state agencies and community partners. States are pursuing many approaches to reducing maternal and infant deaths and improving maternal and infant health.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

Establish and strengthen statewide, cross-agency taskforces to evaluate the circumstances, causes, and missed opportunities for intervention for each maternal and infant death in order to improve care and reduce mortality. These taskforces work best when they include health care providers, hospitals, public health agencies, community organizations, and families impacted by maternal and infant mortality and complications.
Provide tools, technical assistance, and accountability mechanisms to health care providers to end preventable morbidity, mortality, and racial disparities in maternal and infant health. The California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative is a multi-stakeholder organization that uses research, quality improvement toolkits, statewide outreach collaboratives and its innovative Maternal Data Center to improve health outcomes for mothers and infants. Since the Collaborative’s inception, California has seen maternal mortality decline by 55 percent between 2006 to 2013, while the national maternal mortality rate continued to rise.
Directly engage and support mothers through programs such as Labor of Love, a program of the Indiana State Department of Health which provides dedicated information and referral helpline for moms and a mobile app, Liv, full of pregnancy related resources.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay
3. Support maternal and child mental health and social and emotional development

There is strong evidence that pregnancy related depression and other adverse childhood experiences can have a significant impact on the health of children and families. States can impact the lifelong health of women and children if mental health needs are identified and treated early. Maternal and Child Health Essay

Reduce adversity and build resilience by screening for and addressing toxic stress and providing early interventions in families. Vermont has created a permanent Director of Trauma Prevention and Resilience Development within the Office of the Secretary in the Agency of Human Services to direct and coordinate a systemic approach across state government to build childhood resilience and mitigate toxic stress.
Increase identification of and treatment for pregnancy related depression and infant social and emotional development by providing services to mothers and infants, offering training resources for health, human services and educational professionals and creating incentives to improve access and quality of care by health care providers.
Support new parents through home visiting programs such as Healthy Families America, Nurse-Family Partnership, and Parents as Teachers, that can improve family functioning and child development, reduce health risk behaviors and child maltreatment, decrease racial/ethnic disparities, and even improve economic security.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay
Maternal, Infant and Child Health
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established in 2000, include three main health goals, two of which focus on child and reproductive/maternal health. MDG4 calls for the reduction of under-five child mortality by two-thirds by 2015 against a 1990 baseline, and MDG5 calls for the reduction of maternal mortality by three-quarters during the same period, as well as universal access to reproductive health. While neither the reproductive/maternal goal nor child health goal were reached by the 2015 target date, maternal and child mortality have each declined by half since 1990, and the global annual rate of reduction for child mortality doubled in the MDG era, from 1.8% during 1990– 2000 to 3.9% during 2000–2015. Global under-five mortality has declined by 47% between 1990 and 2015. This translates to decline in under-five from 12.7 million in 1990 to nearly 6 million in 2015. The rate of reduction in under-five mortality has more than tripled since the early 1990s.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

The 2015 data from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed a 45% worldwide decrease in materinal mortality ratio. Of the 303,000 women who died of maternal causes, most of the deaths occurred in the African region. There was also an increase in the number of births attended by a skilled health personnel. More than 71% of births were assisted by a health personnel in 2014 as compared to 59% in 1990. In the developing regions, only 52% of pregnant women received the recommended number of antenatal visits.

As for child mortality, 5.9 million children aged under-five died in 2015. Majority (83%) of the deaths were due to infectious, neonatal or nutritional conditions. Neonatal mortalities comprised the bulk of under-five deaths. One million neonates died on the day they were born. An additional 1 million will die in their first week of life and around 2.8 million will die during their first 28 days of life. Prematurity, intrapartum-related complications, and neonatal sepsis could be avoided with simple, but high-impact interventions that address the needs of women and newborns in the continuity of care.The top causes of neonatal deaths were prematurity (16%), intrapartum-related complications (11%) and sepsis (7%).Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

Despite the improvements brought about by MDG4 and MDG5, there are still many challenges to be addressed. Every minute around the world, 11 children die before celebrating their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable causes. Large inequities remain in maternal health, along with gaps in access to and use of sexual and reproductive health services that must be consistently addressed and monitored. Child survival and improving maternal health will remain priorities of the post-2015 global development agenda.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serves as a global post-2015 development agenda. While it does not aim to complete what the Millennium Development Goals did not achieve, it recognizes that eradicating poverty is the greatest global challenge and a crucial requirement for sustainable development. Goal 3 aims to ensure healthy lives and well-being for all in all ages. Targets for maternal, neonatal and child health include: reduction of global maternal mortality ratio, end preventable deaths of children and newborns under 5 years, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services, achieve universal health coverage and support the research and development of vaccines and medicines.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay
Individual and global efforts are necessary to continue improving maternal and child health.

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Recognizing that our mission cannot be attained without a strong foundation in health delivery, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) works to prevent and treat HIV infection while strengthening comprehensive maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) programs. EGPAF helps deliver HIV prevention, care and treatment services within settings that provide reproductive health services, prenatal care, labor and delivery, and early childhood care, while strengthening existing MNCH services offered at these locations.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

Reproductive Health
EGPAF supports services that reduce risk of HIV transmission from mother to child. We work with supported reproductive health sites to offer HIV testing and counseling and linkage to care and treatment alongside voluntary family planning, and sexually transmitted infection screening and treatment, and cancer screening. Maternal and Child Health Essay

Prenatal Health
Prenatal care locations serve as important entry points to provide access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services. EGPAF supports initiatives that promote early enrollment of pregnant women in MNCH services.

Labor and Delivery Services
Counseling women on the benefits of giving birth in a health facility is a routine element of our supported prenatal care, as home births are more likely to result in health complications and death. EGPAF ensures that labor and delivery are provided by skilled birth attendants able to offer respectful maternity care and adequately respond to obstetric emergencies.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

Postnatal Care
The postpartum period is a critical time for all mothers and newborns, as most serious health problems may arise within the first days and weeks of life. We ensure that each new mother and infant visiting our postnatal care service locations is screened for HIV and linked to ART, if needed. In many of our supported sites, we offer nutrition and early child development counseling in addition to maternity follow-up care. Maternal and Child Health Essay

Child Health Settings
EGPAF supports a variety of early child health settings to ensure that each eligible mother-infant pair is given access to comprehensive health services including HIV testing, care and treatment. EGPAF also works in these settings to provide psychosocial support to children and adolescents through clubs and camps, where HIV-positive children and teens meet to discuss HIV, stigma, family, and issues with treatment adherence.

The health of mothers, infants, and children is a reflection of the current health status of Hawaii’s population, and predicts the health of the next generation. Maternal and child health begins before conception, when steps can be made to improve the overall health of the mother. Once pregnant, it is recommended to seek prenatal care because of its potential to improve the health of mothers and infants. Early prenatal care allows for the detection, treatment, and management of medical and obstetric conditions. Maternal and Child Health Essay

Additionally, it gives health care professionals an opportunity to screen and counsel women for risky behaviors, such as alcohol or substance use. Alcohol is the leading cause of birth defects and developmental disabilities known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). Since the safe or minimum amount of alcohol is unknown, complete abstinence from alcohol use is recommended for pregnant women or women planning to become pregnant. Drug use poses various risks for unborn babies and pregnant women. Babies exposed to illegal drugs can have low birth weight, withdrawal symptoms, birth defects, or learning or behavioral problems. Similar to alcohol use, birth defects and other problems resulting from illegal drugs are 100% preventable if women stop before becoming pregnant. Another risky behavior is tobacco use, which can result in premature birth, low birth-weight, still birth, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

Breast-feeding is recognized by national and international authorities as the single best way to feed infants. It is associated with fewer episodes of infectious illness among infants and healthier relationships between babies and mothers. In addition to being cost-effective, breast-fed children have been found to have higher cognitive function than formula-fed infants. Maternal and Child Health Essay

Since 1990, maternal death worldwide have dropped by 45 percent, however consistently around 800 women die from preventable makes related pregnancy and labor. All of these deaths happen in low-pay settings subsequently of condition that includes hypertension, infection, high blood pressure, and complications during delivery. Maternal health is closely connected to infant survival. While great steps have been made in reducing global child mortality, new-borns and now represent 44 percent of all child deaths. Every year, 2.9 million babies needlessly die within their first month and an extra 2.6 million are stillborn. The main cause, which are preventable and treatable, are confusions because of rashness, intricacies amid conveyance and contamination. National organizations recognize the need to accelerate the development, delivery and impact at scale of new approaches to deal with need worldwide medical issues. These advancements will help in earlier diagnosis of per-eclampsia and eclampsia, in distinguishing of abnormalities during labor, and in prevention of postpartum hemorrhage for women without access to skilled providers. Experts in child health and maternal focus on the complex public health problems affecting women, infants and their families. Their well-being determines the health of the next generation and can help future health care challenges for families, communities, and the public health care system Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

The Republic of South Sudan is the newest country of the world, with a total estimated population of 11,296,000 and 406,000 annual births. Despite facing many challenges, it is a growing country committed to improving the living conditions of their population.

The Republic of South Sudan recently has issued important health policies that will improve the health system and reduce maternal and child mortality in the country. The newly issued Health Policy 2016-2015 calls for a responsive intersectoral collaboration that targets individuals, families and communities to take responsibility for the determinants of health; food security and nutrition, education, poverty, water and sanitation, environmental and climatic conditions, housing, socio-cultural and gender related barriers to access to health services, all forms of violence, traffic and urban planning, in addition to sustained behavior change campaigns.

Among its objectives, the policy envisions that all efforts and program mes work to strengthen health service organization and infrastructure development for effective and equitable delivery of the basic package of health and nutrition services.Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay

Maternal, Infant, and Child Health
Since 1990, maternal death worldwide have dropped by 45 percent, however consistently around 800 women die from preventable makes related pregnancy and labor. All of these deaths happen in low-pay settings subsequently of condition that includes hypertension, infection, high blood pressure, and complications during delivery. Maternal health is closely connected to infant survival. While great steps have been made in reducing global child mortality, new-borns and now represent 44 percent of all child deaths. Every year, 2.9 million babies needlessly die within their first month and an extra 2.6 million are stillborn. The main cause, which are preventable and treatable, are confusions because of rashness, intricacies amid conveyance and contamination. National organizations recognize the need to accelerate the development, delivery and impact at scale of new approaches to deal with need worldwide medical issues. These advancements will help in earlier diagnosis of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, in distinguishing of abnormalities during labor, and in prevention of postpartum haemorrhage for women without access to skilled providers. Experts in child health and maternal focus on the complex public health problems affecting women, infants and their families. Their well-being determines the health of the next generation and can help future health care challenges for families, communities, and the public health care system Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Essay