Maternal health

 

Maternal health

Maternal health (in maternal health ) refers to women's health concerning pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum. Offers to promote maternal health include sex education, family planning, advice on the desire to have children, prenatal care, and postnatal counseling for mothers. In the emerging countries of the South, schooling and health care are essential to maternal health and are critical to reducing maternal mortality. But even in developed countries, educationally and socially disadvantaged mothers and their children are in poorer health.

 

Poor maternal health has severe effects on the child's health and development. Poverty, malnutrition, physical and mental illnesses impair mental (cognitive), physical (motor), mental, and emotional (behavioral) development throughout childhood. If the mother's health is severely damaged during pregnancy, the child is likely to develop health and development problems, and in the worst-case scenario, infant death. The physiological environment that the mother provides for the embryo and fetus is critical to its well-being long after birth.

 

Healthcare offers consist of screening and other interventions for women of childbearing age and aims to reduce pregnancy risk. Pregnancy complications should be prevented or discovered as early as possible. Professional midwives can intervene in the event of complications of childbirth. After childbirth, maternal counseling helps with recovery from birth, baby care and feeding ( breastfeeding counseling), and advice on family planning issues. The motherly care accompanies and supports the mother during childbirth, with baby care, looking after the household, and, if necessary, the older children.

Factors that affect the health of mother and child

Poverty and lack of access to medical services

The risk of dying during pregnancy or childbirth is 175 times greater in sub-Saharan Africa than in developed countries, the risk of pregnancy diseases and negative consequences after childbirth is even greater. Poverty, maternal health and the chances for the child are closely related. First week deaths in developing countries account for 98% of global deaths of this age.  In 2010, 287,000 women worldwide died during pregnancy or childbirth.  Poverty is detrimental to the health of both mother and child.

 

A study conducted in Kenya showed that common maternal health problems in poor areas include bleeding, anemia, high blood pressure, malaria, placenta retention, premature labor, prolonged / complicated childbirth and preeclampsia.  Proximity to facilities and the availability of transportation can have a significant impact on whether prenatal care is used. In Mali, a study of maternal health services found that women who lived in rural areas far from health facilities were less likely to receive professional care during pregnancy and childbirth than those in urban areas. A lack of transportation was even more important than where you lived alone. A study in rural Ethiopia showed similar results.

 

In general, appropriate prenatal care includes medical care, but also education, social services and ensuring adequate nutrition during pregnancy. Even in developed countries, women who live in poor areas are more likely to be overweight, more likely to have unhealthy behaviors such as smoking and drug use, take less prenatal care, or have poor access. They have a significantly higher risk of negative consequences for mother and child.  There are a number of reasons why women may not take prenatal care. In an American study, 71% of low-income women had difficulty accessing prenatal care services.  In the US, immigrant and Hispanic women are at greater risk than white or black women of receiving little or no care. The level of training is also an indicator. American adolescents are the least likely to receive benefits during pregnancy. In several studies, women and adolescents cited a lack of funds and a lack of transport as the most common barriers to receiving pension benefits. The quality of pension benefits is strongly related to income.

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