A current and long-time focus of international and global
health initiatives take a concentrated look into maternal and child health as a
whole. One of the important ideas is that fact that by providing safe and
quality sexual and reproductive health care, we are able to decrease global
rates of maternal morbidity as well as maternal mortality. Another initiative
is to provide access to contraceptives as well as push women to utilize
facilities that are made for childbirth. Among all of these initiatives, facilities
have improved their safety and sanitation and there has been an increase in
financial support for this specific issue.
One of the
main topics that we discussed in class on Monday was about basic human rights
and if health care was to be considered a basic human right. While looking
through topics to blog about this week, I stumbled upon an initiative proposed
by the World Health Organization that involves preventing and eliminating
disrespect and abuse during facility based childbirths. The statement that was
given by the World Health Organization stated, "Every women has the right
to the highest attainable standard of health, which includes the right to
dignified, respectful health care". I thought that this topic tied nicely
into our discussion from class on Monday because in that statement by the WHO,
they concur that every women has the right to distinguished health care.
There are
obviously some things behind the scenes that we don't always see. Maternal and
child health has always been a pretty big issue on the global health forefront,
but not as much attention has been brought to this specific issue of disrespect
and abuse during childbirth. According to the WHO, research has been growing on
this issue and many women's experiences, not only during childbirth, but during
pregnancy as well, have been quite disturbing. Researchers are finding that
women across the globe have experienced these issues, not just in a generalized
location. Not only does this violate trust between the women and their
health-care counterparts, but this could be another huge reason why women
wouldn't want to seek maternal health care services. Some of the specific
treatment that has been noted has consisted of things such as physical abuse,
humiliation and verbal abuse, unconsented medical procedures, lack of
confidentiality, failure to get informed consent, refusal to give pain medications,
refusal of admission to health facilities, neglecting women during childbirth
that are suffering life-threatening complications, and even the detention of
women and newborns because of the inability to pay.
One of the
issues with this new international health problem is the fact that there isn't
a global consensus on how respect and abuse are measured or defined. Likewise,
this issue is not a major concern because many people are unaware that it even exists.
The World Health Organization suggested these five actions that should be taken
in order to help bring awareness to and eliminate the problem:
- 1. Greater support from governments and development partners for research and action on disrespect and abuse
- 2. Initiate, support and sustain programs designed to improve the quality of maternal health care, with a strong focus on respectful care as an essential component of quality care
- 3. Emphasizing the rights of women to dignified, respectful health care throughout pregnancy and childbirth
- 4. Generating data related to respectful and disrespectful care practices, systems of accountability and meaningful professional support are required
- 5. Involve all stakeholders, including women, in efforts to improve quality of care and eliminate disrespectful and abusive practices
References
http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/maternal_perinatal/statement-childbirth/en/
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/134588/1/WHO_RHR_14.23_eng.pdf?ua=1&ua=1
The issue of abuse, humiliation and disrespect to women especially pregnant or women in labor is deplorable. In some cultures, everything is blamed on women; for instance women are blamed for having so many children or becoming pregnant again and even accused of adultery if detected that she has STI. What roles do men play then in maternal health? Experts have come up with birth control measures for women and men to minimize the fertility rate and decrease mortality rate. However some of these family planning tools are not readily available and accessible to local folks who are most at risk of abuse, neglect and humiliation during pregnancy and child birth. Some governments failed to address the issue leaving women to their fate and if properly documented the mortality figures of women would be staggering. Those countries which understood the concept of family planning and passed laws to protect the rights of women especially when it comes to their reproductive health have made tremendous progress. In my opinion, it is high time apart form male condoms and vasectomy as means of birth control or contraceptives, the WHO developed a contraceptive vaccine for men to keep them at bay from putting voiceless women in the family way even when they are not ready to bear kids. I think this might work better because with the condoms and vasectomy, men feel reluctant to use them or they have no means to purchase them or simply they are not accessible in their local stores.
ReplyDeleteTo save women from some of these predicaments ( abuse, neglect, humiliation etc...), I think men should also be the primary focus point of intervention programs coupled with the provision of basic health infrastructures, trained personnel and education.
That is an important and real issue in developing countries. Maternal health care has a very low standard in low income country. A lot of women face maternal mortality either during or shortly after delivery. Traditions of having many kids is one of the barriers of any contraceptive or birth control program. Based on health system on the low income country, the out of pocket financial system make most of the women deliver in low cost facilities that have no access to many essential medical supplies.
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