An Intervention Involving Traditional Birth Attendants And Perinatal And Maternal Mortality Essay

Childbirth is one of the greatest privileges on the earth anyone could have and we, as women, should feel proud to be major contributors for it. Thus, a mother has to play a key role in aiding the healthcare workers to mitigate the health crisis associated with childbirth by performing her duties faithfully. One such associated health crisis is “Premature (preterm) birth” which occurs when the baby is born too early, before 37 weeks of gestational period (CDC, 2015). The rate of preterm birth ranges from 5% to 18% of babies born across 184 countries (WHO, 2015).

Maternal mortality represents more than the loss of lives for individual women, as it also reflects the larger value and prioritization of women 's health and threatens the health and survival of families, young children, and even the communities in which they live (Royston and Armstrong, 1989). Maternal mortality is unacceptably high (WHO, 2015b). Globally, approximately 830 women die every day from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications (ibid.). The causes of maternal mortality are predominately preventable and can be classified into three fundamental causes: (1) medical - consisting of direct medical problems and pre-existent/coexistent medical problems that are aggravated by pregnancy, (2) underlying - social and legal conditions, and (3) health systems laws and policies that address availability, accessibility, and quality of reproductive health services (PHP et al, 2011).

For hundred of years, women have wrestled with their womanhood, bodies, and what it means to be a woman in our society. Being a woman comes with a wonderful and empowering responsibility--giving birth. What sets us aside from other countries is that the process and expectations of giving birth has changed in our society; coming from midwifery, as it has always been since the early times, to hospitals where it is now expected to give birth at. Midwifery was a common practice in delivering babies in

The author is a nurse in a level two trauma facility in a community of approximately fifty thousand people in Oregon. The community is a college-town surrounded by a large agricultural area. There is a minimal ethnic diversity within the community. The diversity present occurs mainly from internationally students and faculty from the college. There is a growing population of women who desire low interventional births in the community. The author has worked on the labor and delivery unit of the hospital for the last 14 years. The hospital is the only one in the area to offer trial of labor services to women who have previously undergone a cesarean section. The unit on average experiences around 1000 deliveries annually.

The growth in presence of midwives in both Indigenous and non-indigenous communities is increasing, indicating the overall difference in experience between what would be defined as “natural” birth and what western medicine dictates as “normal” birth. Though, this does not include the use of “assisted” birth during emergency situations, which is sometimes the case even with midwife patients (Green, 2017). But, this experience gives the mother an ally especially through emergency situations, which is related through both Dorothy Green and Kim Anderson’s experiences; Anderson whose first pregnancy needed to be terminated was assisted by an Indigenous birthing center to ensure that she would be able to bury the remains of her child, which is needed for both closure and ceremony (2006). Similarly, Green had to fight to make Indigenous medicine and options known in the hospital, to ensure that her patients were returned the pieces of their birthing process they needed to move forward and perform ceremony (2017). The use of traditional teachings, especially in an event as sacred as birthing, helps to heal Indigenous communities and families, and a healthy community leads to healthy identities of mothers.

Watson and Mason’s article, “Power of the first Hour” and Risworth, et al.’s article “I was on the way to the Hospital but I Delivered in the Bush” both focus on aspects of maternal and infant care and demonstrate the fundamental differences between western policies enacted to improve women’s lives in developing countries and the local realty in those developing countries.

In the United States giving birth has become medicalized and it is because the medical community has convinced women that having a baby in a medical facility is mandatory and better for the baby. Medial birth is not natural birth. The American populace is uneducated about the natural process of labor. The overwhelming amount of women having babies in hospitals is unique to the United States. Most other nations including first world nations, women give birth in the presence of midwives rather than a doctor. According to experts documented in the film, “The United States has the second worst newborn death rate in the developed world.” Also “The US has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among all industrializes countries.” The makers of this film link those fact with the common practice of hospital birthing. According to the film makers, Doctors should only be used in high risk pregnancy and births.

The WHO report (3) estimates there are slightly more than 59 million health care workers in the world. Of the 4.3 million shortages, India appears as one of the dozens of countries with a critical shortage of health care providers (4-6). A Critical shortage of health care providers means for every given birth, less than 80 percent have skilled birth attendants present. The data further suggests that a country must have between 2.02 and 2.54 skilled birth attendants (doctors, nurses, or midwives) per 1000 population to support growth and maintain a strong health care system. Estimates place India at 1.87 skilled birth attendants per 1000 population (7).

Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE) (2011) Saving mothers’ lives; reviewing maternal deaths to make motherhood safer: 2006-2008. BJOG 18(1): 1-203. London. Blackwell Synergy.

The fifth goal is to increase maternal health in countries with a focus on reducing the maternal mortality rate by three-fourths and universal access to reproductive health both by 2015. Despite a 43% reduction in maternal deaths since 1990, there are still a large number of women who die during childbirth from preventable causes such as hemorrhaging (United Nations, 2015, p. 38).

When there is a problem in ones life whether that be the country, at their job, or within their own families everyone’s first instinct is what can be done to fix it. An intervention is an action taken to improve a situation. As defined by Public Health 101: Health People-Healthy Populations, an intervention is defined as “the full range of strategies designed to protect health and prevent disease, disability and death.” Thus, high quality evidence needs to be based on the research, which can establish efficacy in one particular population, but also on the effectiveness of the intervention in the specific population. (Riegelman and Kirkwood, 2015). For many public health issues interventions play a crucial role in getting such issues under control. In the case of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in Native American populations infants were ranked second highest in SIDS deaths in the U.S. at 8.7 per 1000 live births (Alexander, Wingate &Boulet, 2008, p. 5). The cause of SIDS is unknown at the moment but there are a multitude of ways parents can help prevent and reduce the risk of their child dying from SIDS.

Maternity care in the United States is not as well developed as maternity care in several other wealthy countries. Maternity care in America is extremely expensive; therefore many women choose not to get the care they need to maintain a healthy pregnancy and baby. Therefore, the infant mortality rate in America is much higher than it should be. Also, women’s overall physical and mental health during and after pregnancy is not as good as it could be. The United States government should provide a way for every single woman to have access to free or exceedingly cheap maternity care so that all of the women and babies in America have a chance to get the professional care that they need to have a healthy pregnancy and baby.

In 2013, 289 000 women died during pregnancy and childbirth and it was estimated that everyday 800 women all over the world died from childbirth or childbirth-related problems (World Health Organization, 2014). Often, maternal mortality is found to occur more often in developing countries than developed countries. Maternal mortality refers women who died from the situation like during pregnancy, termination of pregnancy within 42 days, regardless of duration and place of pregnancy, from aggravation caused by the pregnancy or pregnancy management (Nwagha et al, 2010). Maternal mortality may be resulted from direct or indirect cause. Direct causes are from obstetric complications of pregnancy, labour, and puerperium, and interventions whereas indirect causes are from the worsening of current conditions by pregnancy or delivery (Givewell, 2009). This paper aims to examine the causes for maternal mortality in both developed and developing countries and will end with a proposal for government to ensure women are given reproductive health rights.

Higher traditional birth attendant incomes when not partnering, requests for patients who prefer to give birth at home and the experience of new midwives at the primary health care become the reason traditional birth attendant refuse to partnered with midwife. While the reduced workload and good communication between midwives, traditional birth attendant and Posyandu cadres be the reason traditional birth attendant to want to partner with midwives.

The earthquake also affected the women that are residing in the community reproductive health. The conditions that the women are giving birth in are not always safe and adequate, especially after the earthquake. To help give the women what she needs during delivery an organization is distributing “reproductive health kits to assist [the women] and their families to deliver their babies in the absence of medical staff to support them” (Daniel, 2010, p. 102). There are many steps that are being taken in Haiti to help improve women’s health especially when it concerns reproductive health. By educating and improving the health of the women it will with any luck improve the health of the children in Haiti as well. By improving the women’s health it will help to decrease the cases of malnutrition in the children of Haiti as well.