Developing Countries Are Plagued By Issues Of Poor Maternal, Infant And Child Health Essay

Michelle, R.A., (2013) The effects of maternal nutrition on fetal psychological development. International Journal of Childbirth Education.28.3:p90.

At least half of all stillbirths occurred in the intrapartum period. Among the 133 million babies born alive each year, 2.8 million die in the first week of life. The patterns of these deaths are similar to the patterns for maternal deaths; the majority occurring in developing countries. Quality skilled care during pregnancy and childbirth are key for the health of the baby and the mother. In the regions with the highest neonatal mortality rates, access to postnatal care is abysmally low. In the majority of countries with data in sub-Saharan African and South Asia, fewer than half of mothers and babies receive a postnatal health check.

Mothers around the world have a common goal, to give their babies the best of everything. All mothers want their babies to have the best chances at life to thrive and survive. When a new mother has had her baby, the next question usually is will you breastfeed or bottle feed your baby? For some, that might be a very easy decision and for others it will be a complicated issue as it’s a decision that has to be made early. For mothers in Africa, the choice is particularly hard, especially if they have AIDS. These mothers risk much more than most moms to give their babies the best chance of survival. Information is not easy to come by to educate these women in their choices. Infection can still be passed on, antibiotics have to be given and food is still scarce but formula is so expensive that it often cannot be considered because money is not available for that big of a purchase. Breastfeeding is the best tool a mother can give a 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.

The poor nutrition of the child during the first two years after birth is the main cause of about 3.5 million deaths annually, and 35 percent of childhood diseases. The weakness of fetal development or stunting during the first two years

Foods and their nutrients are essential to life. In the beginning years of life an infant’s nutritional health depends on the family unit. Parents must have knowledge of the changing food needs of the child and must also have sufficient resources to provide food, shelter, and clothing for the family. Equally important, parents create the cultural and psychological environment that influences the

In Angola, women are responsible for taking care of their children. Because there is no access to medicine, it is hard to ensure one’s child will receive the correct diagnosis or treatment for their condition. Women are having multiple children,

In our society Infant mortality is a huge issue stopping us from moving forward collectively. Social Reproduction is a theory proposed by Karl Marx claiming that inequalities are social reproduced from generation to generation. This supports the idea that those born into a lower class have a higher chance of become ill. Infant mortality is a huge issue in countries like America because instead of suffering from hunger and starvation. They suffer from idea that families can afford healthy groceries instead they are made to buy cheap fast food to get by each day. This affects the children’s health the most because they are in need for the right healthy foods to help them from getting disease like type 2 diabetes and obesity. In other countries around the world, Infant mortality is caused by malnutrition and starvation because the families can’t feed the mother to breastfeed the infants who are vulnerable. Childhood malnutrition is the biggest contributor to all death among children younger than 3 it accounts for almost 35 percent (Huber, 2012). According to World Health Organization, the most important solution to stop this would be the access for immediate and exclusive breastfeeding. We need to implement different policies to help make baby formula and medicine cheaper for children in need. We also can lower infant mortality by educating mothers and local health workers to help eradicate simple things such as malnutrition and disease.

countries, lack of education and poverty is not as much of a prevalent cause for the

Women all around the world get to experience the wonderful gift of pregnancy and all that comes with it. Although, one would think that the process is similar throughout all women that is not the case. Prenatal, labor, postpartum, and newborn care differ greatly throughout the different cultures and regions of the world. Being a nurse you get to see and experience all these differences in cultures in practice. It is important to be considerate of each cultures needs during each step of pregnancy. The Somalian culture is among one of the highest for child and maternal mortality rates. Looking at some of their practices and beliefs you see the differences and can understand why they have a high mortality rate for mothers and

The leading causes of death and disability for Somali women of reproductive age are complication during pregnancy and childbirth, lack of access to skilled birth attendants, narrowly spaced births, early adolescent marriages, and female genital mutilation/cutting. Maternal mortality in Somalia is high and on the rise, it’s significantly higher than that of other developing countries. Country make steps towards reducing maternal mortality rates in Somalia. Cost is the main reason why mothers deliver at home and don’t seek help, even when there is a local clinic. By providing mothers with good nutrition and access to services without asking for payment, more women will seek out the care they need and that more lives will be saved.

Globally, estimated 1.5 billion women were of childbearing age (15 to 45 years old) in 2011; 26% (310.62 million) of them covered by India only. Among 1.5 billion, 210 million become pregnant every year; of which; 86.66% (accounting as 182 million) of in developing world and remaining 13.33% (28 million) was in developed countries. 1, 2 Similarly 139.65 million births were in 2009 in the world and 26.92 million only in India.2 Pregnancy and childbirth are special events in women’s lives. This can be a time of great hope and joyful anticipation3. Though pregnancy and childbirth are a natural and usual phenomenon, these events put every woman at risk of complications and it directly/indirectly affect to the growth and development of the infant. Most maternal and child deaths occur during late pregnancy and the first year of the child’s life respectively.4

There are over 200 million children throughout the world that are under the age of five years old who doesn’t even have regular basic healthcare. Because of such extensive situation. This situation is the result of having nearly ten million deaths annually from scenarios that are untreatable alignments like diarrhea and pneumonia. Mostly all the deaths have been occurring in the developing world. All of the deaths have occurred in the developing world, with millions of struggling poor children facing three times the danger of dying compared to richer children of our world. Save the children global report showed what was going on throughout our civilization.

“Women face health inequities because of their specific needs around sexual and reproductive health care, and because they often lack adequate resources to pay for care. All the factors of gender inequity—including limited access to education, legal systems that fail to protect women, and gender-based violence—are exacerbated by poverty” (Partners In Health). Women are already economically unequal to men, but poor women have an even harder time getting the health care they need simply because they do not have the money to pay for it. During pregnancy, poor mothers are likely to face multiple stressful life events, including lone-mother, unemployment, crowded or polluted environments, and far fewer resources to deal with these experiences. Pregnant poor women face more problems than any other mother, yet have the least resources to fix them. Factors such as lone-mother and unemployment make it less and less achievable for a poor pregnant woman to afford the type of health care she needs. When a woman doesn 't receive the adequate healthcare she needs while carrying her baby, the child may endure calamities after it is born such as stunted growth or even worse, infant mortality. The early child health consequences of poverty and pregnancy are great and often set a newborn child on a lifelong course of disparities. Included are greatly increased risks for

Among the many fights against poverty, improving children’s’ health is one of the major responsibilities. A healthy child becomes a healthy adult, a person who has the ability to create a better life for them, the people around them, their community, and their countries. One of the core UNICEF objectives is to improve the health of the children of the world.