Poor Maternal, Neonatal And Child Health

According to UNICEF, maternal mortality in Haiti is 35 women out of every thousand; neonatal healthcare is equally abysmal, with 3.1 percent of newborns dying within the first month after birth. Most of the maternal and neonatal deaths are considered largely preventable, given adequate healthcare resources. Accessibility to these resources is another important issue, with less than 36 percent of pregnant women giving birth in any healthcare facility.

Infant mortality rate constitutes the death of a baby before their first birthday. Mortality rates around the world differ tremendously with America leading the first world countries at an alarming rate of 6.1 deaths per 1,000 births. Conversely, Finland and Japan secure the last, most desirable position, with deaths totaling 2.3 per 1,000 births, as of 2010. (Ovaska-Few, 2015) In 2014, over 23,000 babies died in the United States. (CDC, 2016) Exploring the mortality rates in America brings light to a dire need for additional interventions and research as to why this developing nation has the highest rate of infant deaths before the age of 1 year old. African Americans face the worst outcomes of infant death compared to whites, Latino, and their Native American peers in North Carolina. (Ovaska-Few, 2015) This paper will explore why African American are the leading race for infant mortality and the steps that health communities need to take to address this devastating occurrence.

Infant deaths in the neonatal period are caused by complications arising from preterm births, birth defects, maternal health conditions, complications of labor and delivery, and lack of access to appropriate care at the time of delivery. Infant deaths in the post-neonatal period are driven by sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) (including sudden infant death syndrome [SIDS]), injury, and infection (MMRW, 2013). An increasing proportion of post-neonatal infant deaths occur among infants who were born preterm but survived the neonatal period (Callaghan, 2006). On the other hand there is lesser knowledge of the incidence and etilogy of fetal mortality which according to MacDorman et al, makes fetal mortality an overlooked public health issue. Lee et al, echoed the same idea when they said infant mortality has been the main focus of public health programming while fetal deaths have gone untargeted. However, with the decrease in infant mortality rates there have been recent approaches such as perinatal period of risk analysis framework (PPOR) that highlight the need to include fetal

Health related policy (HRP) targets two of the fundamental causes, medical and health systems laws and policies, making it the primary solution for decreasing the maternal mortality rate (MMR). However, a wider discussion has emerged about the importance of social determinants of health, the second fundamental cause, at a global level. The Report of the World Health Organization 's Commission on Social Determinates of Health (CSDH) (2008) importantly acknowledged that poverty, exploitation, oppression, and injustice damage health (CSDH, 2008). This document expanded the discussion on the

As a high-income society, the United States when comparing the health care statistics to others world-wide is one of the most blessed nations in the world, but many people who struggle to pay for their health care find that our health care system has many weaknesses that effect the overall quality of care and their personal well-being. Health is defined by the World Health Organization as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being” (Macionis 236). There are many degrees of both physical and mental health and most people fall short of complete health and find themselves in need of medical care. One indicator that is used to measure a society’s overall health is the infant mortality rate, which is “the number of babies who die before their first birthday out of every thousand babies born” (Macionis 236). As expected, America’s infant mortality rates are low especially when coming comparing the rates to countries that are known to have economic hardships. Another means to measure the overall health well-being of a society is by determining the life expectancy at birth or the number of years that a person is expected to live in a given society. High-income nation’s life-expectancy rates are higher and most people can live long lives without serious health conditions until later in life. Low-income nations unfortunately can have much lower life expectancies. The economy and livelihood of a

Low birth weight (LBW), defined as an infant weighing less than 2500g at birth, and very low birth weight (VLBW), infants <1500g, are health outcomes that themselves are indicators of future health outcomes, as well as present and future morbidity and mortality risk (“Birth Outcomes,” 2017). A large component of these associated outcomes are neurobehavioral, manifesting as impaired cognitive and language development measured in childhood, as well as lower IQ, poorer academic achievement, and reduced executive function measured later on (Aarnoudse-Moens et al., 2009; Barre et al., 2011; Hack et al., 2002; Linsell et al., 2015; Litt et al., 2012). Although decreasing in prevalence, neurosensory impairments, such as cerebral palsy, blindness,

Birth outcomes not only predict immigrant health outcomes, they also may determine factors affecting health behaviors of foreign-born immigrants and U.S.-born Americans. Research articles on immigrant infants’ health indicate despite parents’ ethnicity, newborns from foreign-born immigrant mothers have lower rates of low birth weight and fewer preterm births than newborns from U.S.- born mothers. Reducing preterm (<2500g) births are important for perinatal health because preterm and low birth weight put babies at a higher risk of perinatal morbidity and mortality (Urquia, Frank & Glazier 2010). Low birth weight is associated with higher risks of congenital anomalies, neurodevelopmental and behavioral disorders, and generally poorer child health

Prenatal poverty could influence a child’s physical development throughout the rest of their life. “Children who are poor have higher rates of hospital admissions, disability days, and death rates. They have inadequate access to preventive, curative, and emergency care and are affected more frequently by poor nutrition, single-parent families, dysfunctional families, and poor housing,” (Dawson, 1988). “Studies conducted by Currie and Stabile (2003) demonstrate that children from families, which can be classified as poor, have lower birth weight, higher risk of infant mortality.” Although depending on the reasoning for the low birth weight, these issues may be due to being born prematurely, a medical condition, lack of proper nutrition, or other

The article shows a correlation between the lack of prenatal care with infant mortality, and inadequate prenatal care with low birth-weight. Additionally, White women who delivered on a private service and received inadequate prenatal care experienced only slightly risk of low birth-weight. On the other hand, White and Black women who delivered on general service and received inadequate prenatal care experienced significantly higher risk of low birth-weight.

The article I reviewed was about the low infant mortality and low birth rates of Mexican American and Latina mothers. According to the article, infant mortality rate is used to judge the quality of health in a population. Even though the majority of Latinos and Mexican Americans are less educated and are living in poverty, the infant mortality rate, as well as the low birth weight, is remarkably low. When compared to African Americans, Mexican Americans had the lowest amount of low birth weight babies (Magana, A., & Clark, N. M. (1995)). “Despite similar socioeconomic profiles, infant mortality among Mexican Americans (8/1000 live births) is less than half that of African Americans (18/1000 live births)

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.

mothers during their pregnancy period as well as during and after birth which ultimately will greatly contribute towards the survival of the child. Poor families are often unable to obtain even the most basic health care for their children. Poor or delayed care-seeking contributes to up to 70% of all under-five child deaths. Of the 12 countries where more than 20% of children die before their fifth birthday, nine have suffered a major armed conflict in recently. Countries with weak and fragile health systems have not been able to provide effective child survival strategies that are crucial to reduce under-five child deaths, and especially neonatal deaths. Basic health services have been lacking as well as nutrition, water supplies and sanitation

In 99 low and middle-income countries surveyed, under-five mortality was twice as high in the poorest households when compared with the wealthiest households, thus the burden of child death is greater for poorer families (UN IGME, 2017). A study using pooled DHS data from multiple countries found that variables most highly correlated with under five mortality at the national level, ranked in descending order, included; income,

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.

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.