Maternal and child health journal
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With its independence secured on 9th July 2011, the Republic of South Sudan faces a daunting task to improve public health and primary care in one of the poorest countries in the world. Very high maternal and child mortality rates must be a major concern for the new national government and for the many international agencies working in the country. Poor maternal health outcomes are primarily due to poor prenatal, delivery and post natal care services in health facilities, coupled with low literacy, widespread poverty, and poor nutrition among the general population. ⋯ This paper explores barriers and identifies opportunities available to work toward achieving the targets for Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 5 and 4 to reduce maternal mortality from its current rate of 2,054 deaths per 100,000 live births, and child mortality (currently 135 deaths per 1,000 live births) respectively in the new nation. National and international organizations have a social responsibility to mobilize efforts to focus on maternal, child health and nutrition issues targeting the worst affected regions for improving access to primary care and obstetrical services. Initiatives are needed to build up community access to primary care with a well supervised community health workers program, as well as training mid level management capacity with higher levels of funding from national and international sources to promote public health than current in the new republic.
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Matern Child Health J · Feb 2014
Wisconsin's Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families: application of the maternal and child health life course perspective through a regional funding initiative.
National experts are calling for more integrated approaches such as the life course perspective to reduce health disparities and achieve greater health equity. The translation and application of the life course perspective is therefore of great interest to public health planners, policy makers and funders to promote community-wide improvements in maternal and child health. However, few organizations have applied the life course perspective in designing strategic funding initiatives. ⋯ The Twelve-point plan to close the black-white gap in birth outcomes provided the framework for the planning process. Despite the conceptual challenges, the life course perspective was embraced by the collaboratives, challenged community assumptions on the root causes of poor birth outcomes and provided a unifying funding construct for organizing and planning complementary individual-level interventions with social and physical environmental change strategies. These integrated and complimentary approaches provide a long-term opportunity to address the persistent racial birth outcome disparity in Wisconsin.
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Matern Child Health J · Nov 2010
Insurance-based discrimination during prenatal care, labor, and delivery: perceptions of Oregon mothers.
The purpose of this study was to improve understanding of who experiences insurance-based discrimination during prenatal care, labor, and delivery and how their health care may differ from that of other women. We pooled data from the 1998-1999, 2000, and 2001 Oregon Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System and conducted univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses. The women who perceived that they had been treated differently by health care providers during prenatal care, labor, or delivery based on their insurance status were largely a lower income group. ⋯ Insurance-based discrimination was not significantly associated with the number of topics covered by providers during prenatal care. In contrast, insurance-based discrimination was significantly associated with fewer breastfeeding support actions taken at the hospital and with having had a provider discuss birth control after delivery among women with employer sponsored insurance. These findings draw attention to the need to better understand women's experiences and perceptions of insurance-based discrimination during prenatal care, labor, and delivery.
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Matern Child Health J · Nov 2011
Maternal control of child feeding during the weaning period: differences between mothers following a baby-led or standard weaning approach.
A controlling maternal feeding style has been shown to have a negative impact on child eating style and weight in children over the age of 12 months. The current study explores maternal feeding style during the period of 6-12 months when infants are introduced to complementary foods. Specifically it examines differences between mothers who choose to follow a traditional weaning approach using spoon feeding and pureés to mothers following a baby-led approach where infants are allowed to self feed foods in their solid form. ⋯ A baby-led weaning style was associated with a maternal feeding style which is low in control. This could potentially have a positive impact upon later child weight and eating style. However due to the cross sectional nature of the study it cannot be ascertained whether baby-led weaning encourages a feeding style which is low in control to develop or whether mothers who are low in control choose to follow a baby-led weaning style.
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The purpose of this study is to examine the trends in multiple deliveries in North Carolina and assess their effect on the rates of low birth weight, fetal mortality, and infant mortality. ⋯ Multiple births are an increasingly important contributor to perinatal outcomes, and warrant greater consideration in research aimed at evaluating trends in low birth weight and infant mortality.