Discussing Maternal Health (Research Paper Sample)

CURBING MATERNAL AND INFANT MORTALITY THROUGH OBSTETRIC CARE
PROJECT TITLE
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Table of contents
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………3
Table of Contents
1 Abstract
2 Introduction.
3 Problem statement
4 Target Group
5 Possible Solutions
6 Leadership in Public Health and Health Care environments
7 Theory Application.
8 Conclusion.
9 References.
CURBING MATERNAL AND INFANT MORTALITY THROUGH OBSTETRIC CARE
Abstract
The world experiences increased cases of infant and maternal mortalities due to lack of proper and modernized obstetric care to pregnant women and their infants. The mortalities occur when pregnant women experience complications during their pregnancies and are not able to receive immediate or emergency obstetric care and they lose their lives. The rate at which infants and mothers die globally due to complications related to pregnancy is alarming hence the need to address the issue to avert the deaths. This project is aimed at highlighting how proper obstetric care reduce the deaths of mothers and their infants when used and how everyone especially those expectant and the medical practitioners should embrace this practice to end the deaths. In the project, a sample of pregnant women and infants will be used to show how the mortalities can be prevented when proper obstetric care is provided to pregnant and nursing mothers. The project is aimed at motivating healthcare providers, pregnant women and families with expectant and nursing mothers to seek proper and modernized obstetric care to prevent the mortalities.
Introduction
This project is meant to address the issue of infant and maternal mortality a public health issue across the globe that took away the lives of more than 300,000 in 2015. The world aims at reducing these mortalities by at least 75 percent an issue that seems impossible to achieve since over 500 deaths of both infants and pregnant mothers occur every 100,000 births (Stampfel et al., 2012). Also more than 3million newly born babies have died in their first week of birth (Stampfel et al., 2012). In this regard, global organizations concerned with public health and maternal health each year come up with plans to try and promote maternal health. However, none of these organizations have successfully been able to complete cut off infant and maternal mortalities. As more and more organizations try to formulate solutions to end the deaths, more countries continue to lose lives due to complications related to childbirth. For this reason, healthcare workers continue to be encouraged to create awareness for the need of obstetric care to these women in order to overcome the problem. Also governments globally have been encouraged to offer free or cheap obstetric care to mothers and infants to ensure there is reduced maternal and infant mortalities. As a result, this project is meant to show how the deaths can be reduced or completely averted through proper obstetric care given to the mothers and their new babies. Therefore, the project will take into serious consideration the challenges these women face that lead to their mortalities and try to solve some of the issues they face through proposals and recommendations.
Problem Statement
Everyday a woman or a new born baby loses their life as a result of complications related to child birth. In Africa alone, 1 out of 16 women lose their lives during childbirth and more than 400women in Africa lose their lives out of a population of 100, 000 women (Murray & Lopez, 1997). These deaths occur due to various reasons unsafe abortions, obstructed labors, anemia among other reasons (Murray & Lopez, 1997b).The lack of proper obstetric care also contributes greatly to the increased numbers of those that lose their lives, that is the mothers and their newly born babies. For this reason there is a huge demand to provide proper obstetric care to expectant mothers and their infants globally, in order to curb the increased cased of mortalities as a result of childbirth complications that happen to all women around the globe. This project will address the issue by highlighting it as a global issue and continue to create awareness on the need to adapt obstetric care for mothers even those in the marginalized countries that do not receive such care. The project is also meant t to motivate healthcare providers to offer such services even for free to save lives.
Target Population
The population selected is expectant mothers and their newly born babies that are at a high risk of losing their lives due to the complications related to child birth. Every year, at least 500,000 mothers die due to child birth complications the largest cause of deaths in women (Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Improving Birth Outcomes et al., 2011). At least 40% of women experience complications during their pregnancy most of which cause their death. The cause of these deaths maybe as a result of malnourishment where expectant mothers lack proper feeding programs ectopic pregnancies, hemorrhages, obstructed labors among other reasons. Also unborn babies may also face birth defects and complications that might be the reason they also die during birth or a few days after birth. According to a report released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2018, at least 2.4 infants died in the first month of birth globally, due to complications experienced in their birth (Neonatal mortality - UNICEF DATA, 2018). Although the figure is alarming, it can be prevented from rising if obstetric care is offered to the mothers of these infants in time. Moreover, the World Health Organization reported in 2019 that 94% of maternal deaths are experienced in low income countries and that at least 1000women die out of preventable causes. Further, the World Health Organization (WHO) also reported in the same year that adolescent girls are at a higher risk of getting pregnancy complications and therefore obstetric care should be more focused on them (World Health Organization, 2019). However, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that obstetric care before and after the birth of these infants can greatly reduce the deaths and save lives. It is therefore important for these mothers and infants to receive such care.
Implementation and evaluation
The numbers of infants who die as a result of complications related to child birth continue to rise. In 2013 alone, the World Health Organization reported over 3million infant deaths. Although the number keeps rising, the deaths are can be prevented through various interventions done by Health care systems. In 2015, the World Health Organization started an initiative to prevent maternal deaths. At least two thirds of infant the deaths were reduced through the initiative. Although 59% of maternal deaths were reported that year (Gülmezoglu et al., 2016). Currently more than healthcare care interventions have been undertaken by different health organizations to create awareness to the public about obstetric care. Also public health professions have been actively involved in teaching the importance of obstetric care to these public most of which are directly and indirectly affected by infant or maternal mortalities. In the recent past, more interventions were used to help reduce these cases where pregnant mothers with health issues and complications were screened and proper obstetric care offered to them. Also, infants with health complications were also vaccinated to curb these issues. For some mothers and infants, interventions involving nutrition were done to improve on their dieting in order to overcome the issue of their mortalities (Smith et al., 2015). As more and more awareness is being created, the number of mortalities is reducing hence the need for continuous outreach program to enhance public awareness for the need to obtain obstetric care.
Public health intervention and possible solutions
Public health interventions are the efforts put in place to promote habits and behaviors believed to improve mental health, physical health and emotional health. The interventions help in ensuring that life’s quality is improved, they also help in improving workplace safety, also the intervention help in saving money, reducing the suffering of human beings and ensuring that the community’s health is maintained in order to have a nation that is productive. Public health interventions can be done through various methods like conducting outreaches, screenings, conducting public health education, developing policies in the health sector that will ensure that there is a good relationship between the health care providers and outsiders, doing surveillance on infectious diseases among others. Whereas evaluation of public health intervention means, gathering information on the activities and outcomes of interventions to ensure that the selected intervention method is efficient and to make decision of the future on the intervention method selected. In this regard, my intervention method, that is conducting an outreach program, will help identify expectant mothers who risk losing their lives and that of their infants through childbirth. It will also highlight the challenges faced by expectant mothers during childbirth and give solutions on how to reduce these mortalities and how these women can be assisted. In the program, speciali...