Maternal and Child Health. Global Challenges, Programs, and Policies

About this textbook

• Other than scattered reports of agencies and field professionals this is the first comprehensive book available addressing the issues of international MCH.
• The volume includes coverage of key policies and programs, health systems, diseases, and programmatic and sustainability issues.
• Contributors include international experts in MCH whose experiences range from perinatal epidemiology, health services research, nursing, pediatrics, and health systems management and policy.

Our current era of globalization, war, and socioeconomic unrest has revealed public health as a worldwide concern and a major frontier for social justice with maternal and child health at its epicenter. Yet, there has been a relative scarcity of training resources specifically dedicated to this crucial area. Maternal and Child Health: Global Challenges, Programs, and Policies addresses this gap in current knowledge by analyzing the range of socioeconomic and environmental factors, health care disparities, politics, policies, and cultural practices that impact the health and safety of mothers, as well as the well-being and optimum development of their children.

Individual sections focus on unequal distribution of the world’s resources, politics and power, specific disease concerns, programs, policies and emerging concerns with a focus on what is currently being done, and what needs to be done to improve the health status of women, children, and adolescents. The book’s contributors are some of the world’s most respected experts, carefully selected to represent different global geographic regions and diverse professional disciplines related to maternal and child health from both academic and field practice perspectives.

Among the topics in this authoritative volume:

• The impact of war, globalization, gender inequity, and harmful traditional practices (e.g., female gender mutilation).
• Specific health concerns, including tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, and malnutrition.
• Child and adolescent health issues, from abuse and neglect to children in difficult circumstances.
• Pregnancy-related issues: safety, abortion and post-abortion care, teen pregnancy, and more.
• Strategies for planning, developing, and maintaining maternal and child health systems in developing countries.
• The status of global initiatives, such as Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses and the Millennium Development Goals.
• The status of evidence-based maternal and child health in the developing world.

With such a wealth of information on both practical and conceptual levels, Maternal and Child Health: Global Challenges, Programs, and Policies is as relevant to students and researchers in the field as it is to policy makers and those working for global health and development organizations. It also makes an excellent stand-alone text for courses in global health in general and global maternal and child health in particular.

Written for:

Students of Maternal and Child Health, Researchers with interest in MCH, Policymakers, International health/development agencies

Table of contents

- Introduction and historical perspectives of international MCH – Historical developments in international cooperation in MCH – The global burden of disease among women, children, and adolescents – Health systems impact on global maternal and child health – Globalization and its impact on MCH – Cultural, racial, and ethnic disparities in maternal and child health status and behavior – Poverty and impact on access to MCH services – Evidence-based maternal and child health – Making pregnancy safer and related issues in preventative obstetrics – Promotion of perinatal health – Needs assessment strategies in MCH – Community-based evaluation of MCH interventions – From "women’s health" to "gender and health" – Adolescent health – Teenage pregnancy – Female genital mutilation (FGM) – Vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF) – Abortion and post-abortion care – Gender-based violence – The impact of war/conflicts on MCH – Child abuse – Children in different circumstances – Current infectious diseases control strategies in global health – Malaria – Tubercolosis – HIV/AIDS (including MTCT) – Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) – Diarrhea diseases – Malnutrition – Injury and poisoning – Disabilities – Hemoglobinpathies – Training and retention of MCH professionals in remote and rural areas – Service delivery and program sustainability in remote and rural settings – Priority setting for research and development in international MCH