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

1990 - Infant Health and Development Programme, helps to teach maternal mothers the importance of proper diet to low-weight newborns. This brings light to the connection between proper physical and mental health.

Things happened during these critical periods can create long lasting or irreversible impacts to a person’s health. For an instance, breastfeeding has plentiful benefits during infancy and childhood, and children who are exclusively breastfed are less vulnerable for obesity compared to formula-fed children (Musingarimi, 2008). World Health Organization (WHO) identifies that diets in early life is one if the deciding factors for the development of adulthood diseases (WHO, 2013).

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).

A mothers nutritional status, before and during her pregnancy has a powerful impact on the lifelong health for her child. It is now even believed by some researchers say that “the 9 months of pregnancy are the most consequential period of our lives, permanently influencing the wiring of the brain and the function of organs like the heart, liver and pancreas. They also suggest that the conditions we encounter in utero shape everything from our susceptibility to disease, to our appetite and metabolism, to our intelligence and temperament” (Kresser). The mother’s prenatal care, nutrition, and precautions taken all play a key role in the child’s development for later in life. Since the

Malnutrition is defined as a lack of proper nutrition, caused by not having enough to eat, not eating enough of the right things, or being unable to use the food that one does eat. This is another environmental factor in which children of poor families are at a great disadvantage due to the fact that it tends to occur most in those confronting the adverse socioeconomic and environmental conditions typically associated with poverty. It has become widely known that malnutrition may lead to increased early child mortality, impairment of physical growth and substantial destruction to brain development. In addition, the short-term implications of malnutrition lead to long term complications and cognitive delays such as attention deficit disorder, impaired school performance, decreased IQ scores, memory deficiency, learning disabilities, reduced social skills, reduced language development, and reduced problem-solving abilities. It has even been argued that nutrition may be the single greatest environmental influence on babies in the womb, during infancy, and throughout the first years of life.

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.

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

Around the world, 830 women die every day from preventable complications during pregnancy and delivery (“Maternal mortality” 1). A death during a pregnancy or within 42 days of delivery is referred to as a maternal death (Semba and Bloem 34). The issue of maternal death in developing countries is an often unaddressed and urgent need. Things like poverty, a lack of access to quality healthcare, and cultural practices are causing maternal mortality rates in developing countries to be unnecessarily high (“Leading and underlying causes of maternal mortality” 1). Mothers in developing countries are needlessly dying, but organizations like Delivering Hope International (DHI) have heard their cry and rushed to provide the tools and care these women so desperately need.

The first years of life are the most crucial years for brain, immune system and overall physiological development. This is why, it is extremely important to achieve optimal nutrition standards in these early years. Studies have shown that having optimum nutrition in infancy can lead to profound benefits throughout the lifespan of the person. Breastfeeding is extensively recommended, as the best way to achieve the

Maternal mortality/death is defined as the death of a pregnant woman by causes related to the pregnancy or its management, or death of a post-partum mother within 42 days after pregnancy termination (Requejo, Bryce, Victora, & Deixel, 2013; Ronsmans, Graham, & group, 2006; Say et al., 2014). There are proposals to change this definition to make it include one-year post-partum death of mothers, as the risk of death has been shown to remain high half a year post-partum (Ronsmans et al., 2006). Many maternal deaths that occur usually occur in low and middle income countries. In the year 2010, 287, 000 maternal deaths that were avoidable occurred, and most occurred in these developing countries. Reduction of maternal deaths has been one of the outcomes that have been targeted in the efforts to improve maternal health for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (Say et al., 2014). In developing countries, especially Sub Saharan Africa, where fertility levels remain high, maternal deaths have continued to be high despite the general deaths reduction (Requejo et al., 2013). Many argue that there is not enough information to confidently describe and quantify this problem, but Requejo et al., 2013 reported that the available information is sufficient.

The article “Developmental Potential in The First 5 Years for Children in Developing Countries”, published in 2007 by several authors, is a research about the major risks of the children who live in developing countries. This article highlights the relevance of the children’s 5 first years of age, through the evaluation of different psychological and physical cases around the world to prove the impact of poverty in their development (Grantham-McGregor et al., 2007). In this essay the article the personal reflection and critical thinking of the writer will be exposed, supporting the following statements with scholarly sources.

A worldwide reduction in under-five mortality rates has been achieved in recent years. But unfortunately neonatal mortality has remained relatively unaffected. The World Health Organization approximated in 2006 that among the 130 million babies that are born each year, over four million die in the neonatal period which accounts for about 38% of all childhood deaths (Bazzano et al. 2008; Survival 2015).Three-fourth of neonatal deaths take place in the first week, and more than one-fourth happen in the first 24 hour (Sampa et al. 2012). The chances of neonatal death is more than six fold higher in the developing regions of the world compared to the developed regions(Bazzano, Kirkwood, Tawiah-agyemang, Owusu-agyei, & Adongo, 2008). Almost 98 % neonates die at home without being attended by a skilled person in the developing countries, predominantly in Asia and Africa, many nations have neonatal mortality rate more than 60 per 1000 live births(Baqui & El-arifeen, 2007).

The current death rate is 29 per 1,000 live births and of the 2.8 million newborns dying at birth worldwide, India accounts for 700,000 children dying at birth or shortly after. The National Health Policy to improve care children and women. Poor neonatal health conditions, widespread illiteracy, poverty, poor sanitation and nutrition have also been identified and India’s hopes to tackle these issues by passing this policy.

The purpose of this research is to identify malnutrition at early stages in people who are exposed to it and to manage this problem in people who might be at risk of developing malnutrition.

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.