Essay Ethiopia: Maternal Mortality and the Access to Care

The World Health Assembly expects efforts to achieve the “Health for All” goals of the WHO to be collaboration between the country’s leaders, health organizations, individual countryman, communities and other countries (Maurer and Smith 2013, p. 115). There are many intergovernmental organizations (The WHO, the Pan American Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Bank, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention etc.) as well as voluntary and philanthropic organizations (Catholic Relief Services, American Friends Service Committee, Doctors without borders, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, etc.) that focus on the health of populations around the world, providing expertise, technical support, funding for economic and infrastructure development and for healthcare services (Maurer and Smith, 2013, pp116-118). As for other countries education in how to raise your own crops can be beneficial. Food and financial aid is currently supplied but perhaps that could be increased, with the introduction

Providing healthcare coverage to all citizens can be challenging to many countries and only the most developed countries have adequate resources to truly provide universal coverage to their citizens. Still, when coverage and resources are not sufficient, care is rationed through limited supply or limited access. Most countries have mechanisms in place, however, to insure that affordability does not limit access to necessary services.

For many decades the access to health care system in America has been an integral social issue. Of all the western countries US is the only country without a universal healthcare access. The health care system charges a fee to provide access to health and the majority of the population is unable to pay such high fees which keep them out of the health care system. The healthcare system is based on the principles of social inequalities which are based on the socioeconomic status, race and gender. The research paper has discussed the issues and analyzed them by shedding light on the alternatives to improve the healthcare system in the US.

Receiving good prenatal care is extremely important for an expecting mother. The prenatal period has a great impact on the newborn's health. Low birth weight is a problem among a certain population of newborns. It is crucial to understand the conditions in poverty and its

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).

South Africans have been struggling with access to medical care for many decades. The root of the problem of access to medical care in South Africa is mainly attributed to the poverty located in the region. Many living in poverty suffer from inadequate resources such as a lack of clean water, malnourishment, lack of effective sanitation, and unreasonable housing conditions. South Africans living in urban areas are more likely to receive better healthcare services than those in rural and remote regions. Sickness in South Africa has been an ongoing issue due to their history of persistent racial inequality, inadequate human resources, and the relentless burden of infections and noninfectious diseases. Proposals to improve the current system include increasing government funding to build hospitals, especially in rural areas, strengthening the public sector of the current healthcare system by utilizing the services of the private sector, improving the

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).

The health of many women in Algeria which is part of Sub-Saharan Africa in 1990 were impacted by the poor health care system because they lived in poverty. Poverty caused these women to lack essential needs to live a quality life. They lacked or could not afford resources such as supplies, health care professionals, and facilities for healthcare, clean water, and waste disposal. This ultimately affected the health of women and their children. For instance, lack of clean water and waste disposal facilities can cause health abnormalities such as cholera or typhoid fever which can cause devastating deaths. This is a healthcare problem because of the lack of funding. The lack of funding prevents antibiotics from being used to prevent death, and prevents African’s from being vaccinated against typhoid fever. Another example of how poverty affects woman’s health is unintended pregnancy, which is because they are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior. It's part of the health crisis because it includes a poor health system, and a lack of education about proper nutrition and behaviors during pregnancy. Complications in these pregnancies due to poor nutrition and not visiting the doctor regularly includes increased infant mortality. Infant mortality in the slums of Nairobe is 91.3% while it is 75.9% in urban areas where there is a better developed healthcare system. The inferiority of poor Africans in

Access to health care is a significant problem. There are many stakeholders involved in the health care system and this paper will outline how the problems with health care access affect them. In general, the major stakeholders of the health care system are the patients, the physicians, nurses, other staff, management, shareholders, politicians and regulators. The families of patients, insurance companies, suppliers, medical schools and others are all key stakeholders worthy of consideration as well. The problem with access to health care is that health care access is uneven, so that many people have no access.

Many woman and girls in Chad are not attended to during their pregnancy, with about 23.7% of woman being attended to by skilled doctors. The reason their is such a limitation on accessing health care for woman and girls is because of poverty. Thier are so many people who live below the poverty line, approximately 80% of Chadians do. Due to this high number of people below the poverty line their is no access or a limited access to health care for woman. This high rate of poverty in Chad causes a chain reaction affecting contraceptive prelevance as well as education. Chad has a low percentage of literacy, about 31.8%, and girls in Chad have a very low enrollment in secondary school. There are large gender inequality for example per school compilation rates for girls are estimated at 25%. This lack of education is very serious which has large consequences such as high maternal mortality rate. But education is not the only serious aspect to this predicament but as well as early marriages, with marriages being arranged at early as 11 or 12. This problem is a very dangerous and serious threat to woman and girls in Chad, as well as to the whole

Access to health care refers to the individual’s ability to obtain and use needed services (Ellis & Hartley, 2008). Access to health care affects a multitude of people. Uninsured, underinsured, elderly, lower socioeconomic class, minorities, and people that live in remote areas are at the highest risk for lack of access to health care. There are also economical and political roles that complicate access to health care. Access to health care is a multi-faceted concept involving geographic, economics, or sociocultural issues. With my extensive research on access to health care, I hope to provide influences regarding; who is affected by lack of access, geographic, economic, sociocultural access, and

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.

Worldwide, approximately 1.3 billion people do not have access to affordable and efficient healthcare and out of those who have access, almost 170 million are forced to spend around 40 % of their income on medical treatment (Asante et al,2016).In low and middle income countries (LMICs), the major constraint to the access of healthcare is financial burden, where out-of-pocket payments (OPP) contribute to approximately 50 % of total health expenditure (WHO, 2010). As a result, in these countries there is high probability of many households being pushed into poverty due to high medical expenses (McIntyre,2006).The matter of concern in LMICS is that poor and disadvantaged groups of population do not have access to adequate quality of healthcare.For instance, according to WHO (2010) up to 20 % of women in rich population are more likely to have a birth attended by skilled health worker than a poor woman. Therefore, taking an action to address health inequities faced in these countries would save up to 700,000 women.

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.