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Maternal and Child Health

2011

Articles 1 - 19 of 19

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When Mountain Bellies Grow Round: Localized Knowledge And Behaviors Facilitating Pregnancy And Childbirth In Phaphlu, Nepal, Cailin Marsden Oct 2011

When Mountain Bellies Grow Round: Localized Knowledge And Behaviors Facilitating Pregnancy And Childbirth In Phaphlu, Nepal, Cailin Marsden

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In attempts to gain a level of understanding of a community’s localized experiences, beliefs, practices, and roles around pregnancy and childbirth, ethnographic fieldwork was conducted with the mothers and fathers of Phaphlu in the Solukhumbu district of Nepal. Aimed at the validation of diverse and localized ways of knowing revealed during the fieldwork period, this paper applies anthropologist Bridgette Jordan’s theoretical framework of authoritative knowledge to the emergent themes of subjectively understood childbirth (knowledge acquisition and flow, role of the husband, and protective behavior.)

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The Perfect Storm: How Pro-Abortion Activists In The Netherlands Incite Social Change From International Waters, Julia Ellis‐Kahana Oct 2011

The Perfect Storm: How Pro-Abortion Activists In The Netherlands Incite Social Change From International Waters, Julia Ellis‐Kahana

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project is a sociological ethnography of the Women on Waves foundation, founded in 1999 by Dr. Rebecca Gomperts. As an international non-profit organization, they employ a direct action method: sailing to countries where abortion is illegal and providing safe abortion access. Local women board the ship that then travels 12 miles to international waters, where Dutch law applies, and the abortion pill can be administered legally. Using a feminist perspective, I interviewed five of the women at the organization in addition to the ship’s captain in order to understand the ideological beliefs about the reproductive rights that have inspired …

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La Etnia Y Las Cesáreas En Los Partos En El Hospital Público De Arica, Chile, Marisa Westbrook Oct 2011

La Etnia Y Las Cesáreas En Los Partos En El Hospital Público De Arica, Chile, Marisa Westbrook

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The principal objective of this project was to explore the relationship between ethnicity and the causes for Caesarean section in the regional public hospital in Arica, Chile. All births recorded in the maternity register (n=907) were analyzed over a 4-month period in 2011. The regional public hospital had a 27% caesarean section rate, higher than the WHO-recommended 15%. Last names were analyzed and deemed to be either of Aymara descent (n=275) or of European descent (n=632) based on criteria used from CONADI, the National Corporation for Indigenous Development. The overall rate of Caesarean section did not differ between Aymara and …

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Economic Empowerment And Hiv Prevention Among Young Women And Girls In Kenya: Lessons From The Study Of Economic Empowerment Programs, Samantha Van Putten Oct 2011

Economic Empowerment And Hiv Prevention Among Young Women And Girls In Kenya: Lessons From The Study Of Economic Empowerment Programs, Samantha Van Putten

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

One of the major issues facing Kenya is HIV/AIDS. With recognition by the global community that providing women with economic opportunities can help both those who are HIV positive, as well as in prevention for those who are not infected, programs combining microfinance and HIV education have started to emerge. While women in these programs 3 3 have shown preliminary signs of success, young girls did not respond as well in part due to lack of interest in the particular programs themselves. As such, this study examines two economic empowerment programs for girls and young mothers at the non-governmental organization …

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Reproductive Realities: Fulani Women & Contraception, Corrina Regnier Oct 2011

Reproductive Realities: Fulani Women & Contraception, Corrina Regnier

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper is the product of three weeks of research on contraception and the lives of married Fulani women in Ngaoundéré, Cameroon. Based on interviews with Fulani women, conducted both in French and in the Fulani language of Fulfulde with the aid of a French interpreter, I discuss the cultural and religious influences on women’s lives that impact their decisions or abilities to use contraception, as well as the ways these influences and realities have changed, are changing, and are expected to change in the future. I also look into the more practical concern of the availability and accessibility of …

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Prenatal Smoking And Drinking Implications For Subsequent Child Maltreatment, Nicholas Alexander Adams Jul 2011

Prenatal Smoking And Drinking Implications For Subsequent Child Maltreatment, Nicholas Alexander Adams

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Prenatal smoking and drinking are very serious problems that have continued to plague society. They have multiple negative effects on the child both physically and cognitively. This study explored the relationship between prenatal abuse, i.e., prenatal smoking and prenatal drinking, and subsequent child physical abuse and official reports of child maltreatment. It was hypothesized that mothers who smoked or drank prenatally would be more likely to physically abuse their child postnatally and have official reports of child maltreatment. The sample included women participating in Wave III of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health. N = 620 women who answered …

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Levels, Trends And Determinants Of Contraceptive Use Among Adolescent Girls In Kenya, Francis Obare, Harriet Birungi, Chi-Chi Undie, Monica Wanjiru, Wilson Liambila, Ian Askew Jan 2011

Levels, Trends And Determinants Of Contraceptive Use Among Adolescent Girls In Kenya, Francis Obare, Harriet Birungi, Chi-Chi Undie, Monica Wanjiru, Wilson Liambila, Ian Askew

Reproductive Health

In Kenya, recent trends in contraceptive use among currently married women aged 15–49 years show that after experiencing a stall between 1998 and 2003, the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) increased between 2003 and 2008–2009. Although the increase in CPR after 2003 is encouraging, there is limited understanding of how these changes affected adolescents, especially girls, given the unique sexual and reproductive health challenges that they face. This report is based on a secondary analysis of the Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys (KDHS) data to understand the trends, differentials, and determinants of contraceptive use among adolescent girls aged 15–19 years in …

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Community Health Workers And The Media Can Be Effective In Providing Health Information To Married Adolescent Girls In The Community, Population Council Jan 2011

Community Health Workers And The Media Can Be Effective In Providing Health Information To Married Adolescent Girls In The Community, Population Council

Reproductive Health

Past research has found that married adolescent girls in Nyanza Province, Kenya, face higher risks of HIV infection than unmarried but sexually active girls their age in the province and other parts of the country. To address this challenge, the Population Council’s APHIA II Operations Research Project, in collaboration with Well Told Story and the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, developed a study to assess the effectiveness of an intervention designed to increase married adolescent girls’ access to comprehensive reproductive health and HIV information and services in Homa Bay and Rachuonyo districts. The study found that using interactive communication …

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Informe Años Dos Movil.Com: Evaluación De La Línea Final Resumen De Hallazgos Principales, Annik Sorhaindo, Xipatl Contreras, Kate S. Wilson, Sandra G. Garcia Jan 2011

Informe Años Dos Movil.Com: Evaluación De La Línea Final Resumen De Hallazgos Principales, Annik Sorhaindo, Xipatl Contreras, Kate S. Wilson, Sandra G. Garcia

Reproductive Health

This report highlights the findings of the endline evaluation of a two-year leadership project aimed at indigenous youth in Oaxaca, Mexico: Movil.com. Movil.com is a community project headed by peers and built on elements of other models. It is similar to a cascaded peer education and training model, in which nuclear leaders are trained who, in turn, train facilitators of larger groups. The Population Council office in Mexico evaluated the project at the request of the social organization that implements it, the Rosales Castellanos Women's Study Group, an NGO that has worked for more than 30 years with indigenous communities …

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Operationalizing And Scaling Up Hiv/Rh Referrals In Kenya: The Way Forward, Aphia Ii Or Project In Kenya Jan 2011

Operationalizing And Scaling Up Hiv/Rh Referrals In Kenya: The Way Forward, Aphia Ii Or Project In Kenya

Reproductive Health

This policy brief describes the APHIA II Operations Research Project through which the Population Council and Kenya’s Ministry of Health (MOH) developed and tested an approach to systematically link HIV-positive family planning (FP) clients to treatment and care services. Key activities included provider training and testing of a referral package which showed how, where, when, and who is to make and receive referrals. This referral package consisted of a directory listing all facilities in the vicinity available for services including HIV counseling and testing, FP, STIs, tuberculosis, and well-child checks; and referral forms directing clients to appropriate receiving clinics. The …

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Strengthening The Delivery Of Comprehensive Reproductive Health Services At The Community Level In Kenya, Population Council Jan 2011

Strengthening The Delivery Of Comprehensive Reproductive Health Services At The Community Level In Kenya, Population Council

Reproductive Health

The Population Council APHIA II Operations Research Project collaborated with the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation to improve the quality of services offered by community-based midwives in two districts in Western Kenya, to prepare them to offer more comprehensive maternal services through antenatal, obstetric, postpartum, and newborn care. The study found that community midwives can tremendously increase clients’ access to essential maternal health services and other reproductive health services. Therefore Ministry of Health and its partners should scale up community midwives’ activities to enable more women access these services. Furthermore, information campaigns are needed to promote the range of …

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Innovative Financing Through Pay-For-Performance For Providers To Improve Quality Of Care In Bangladesh: Transforming Research Into Action, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Ubaidur Rob, Laila Rahman, Ismat Ara Hena Jan 2011

Innovative Financing Through Pay-For-Performance For Providers To Improve Quality Of Care In Bangladesh: Transforming Research Into Action, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Ubaidur Rob, Laila Rahman, Ismat Ara Hena

Reproductive Health

To improve access to and use of facility-based obstetric and newborn care, the Government of Bangladesh is implementing two innovative performance-based financing programs, namely demand-side financing (DSF) and pay-for-performance (P4P). With the purpose of identifying the lessons learned, limitations of the P4P and DSF models, and scopes for cross learning, a two-day workshop was organized in Dhaka. This workshop report, prepared by the Population Council, resulted in several recommendations to modify DSF and P4P schemes. In Bangladesh, the need for continuing performance-based financing programs to meet MDGs and other health indicators is beyond argument, but it is urgently required to …

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Expanding Access To Safe Abortion And Post-Abortion Care: Recommendations Of A South Asia Regional Consultation, Population Council Jan 2011

Expanding Access To Safe Abortion And Post-Abortion Care: Recommendations Of A South Asia Regional Consultation, Population Council

Reproductive Health

A South Asia Regional Consultation, organized by the Population Council with representation from governments and key stakeholders of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, was held in New Delhi, to discuss ways of expanding women’s access to safe abortion services. The Consultation deliberated on ways of expanding the provider base for safe induced abortion so as to overcome inadequate and inequitable access to safe abortion. They also looked to expand access to services for the management of incomplete abortion and complications of unsafe abortion that persist in the region and, thereby, to reduce morbidity and mortality resulting from unsafe abortion. In …

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Integrating Tuberculosis Case Finding And Treatment Into Postnatal Care, Charity Ndwiga, Harriet Birungi, Chi-Chi Undie, Shiphrah Kuria, Joseph Sitienei, Sam Ochola Jan 2011

Integrating Tuberculosis Case Finding And Treatment Into Postnatal Care, Charity Ndwiga, Harriet Birungi, Chi-Chi Undie, Shiphrah Kuria, Joseph Sitienei, Sam Ochola

Reproductive Health

Under the USAID funded FRONTIERS program, the Population Council conducted a study in six health facilities in Western Kenya that demonstrated that screening for TB within an antenatal care (ANC) setting is feasible and acceptable among the service providers. However, a major challenge remains: although TB detection is encouraged among ANC clients within the maternal and child health clinics in the country, providers in these settings fail to appreciate the need for a continuum of care from pregnancy through to the postnatal period. In order to address this gap, the APHIA II Operations Research Project developed and tested an intervention …

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Making Hiv Services More Responsive To Young Children And Infants In Nyanza, Monica Wanjiru Jan 2011

Making Hiv Services More Responsive To Young Children And Infants In Nyanza, Monica Wanjiru

Reproductive Health

Health workers in Kenya often miss opportunities to discuss pediatric HIV with clients and to track exposed children in order to initiate treatment. To address this problem, the Population Council’s APHIA II Operations Research Project collaborated with the Christian Health Association of Kenya, Catholic Relief Services, and the Kendu Adventist Hospital to improve HIV testing and treatment services for children at the hospital. The project recommended that pediatric HIV services be strengthened and included as an essential service at all levels of healthcare facilities in order to reach more children, including as one of the roles of the community health …

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Service Improvements And Community Education Lead To Increase In Uptake Of Hiv Services For Infants And Young Children, Population Council Jan 2011

Service Improvements And Community Education Lead To Increase In Uptake Of Hiv Services For Infants And Young Children, Population Council

Reproductive Health

The Population Council’s APHIA II Operations Research Project in Kenya collaborated with Kendu Adventist Hospital and the Christian Health Association to launch a study to examine the effect of improved services and awareness-creation on the uptake of HIV testing and treatment services for children and infants exposed to HIV. The study showed that community education and improvements in individual case tracking can increase the proportion of infants exposed to HIV who are tested for HIV and put on appropriate treatment. The policy brief recommends that health facilities streamline services to ensure that as many exposed infants as possible are identified …

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A Pay-For-Performance Innovation Integrating The Quantity And Quality Of Care In Maternal, Newborn And Child Health Services In Bangladesh, Laila Rahman, Ubaidur Rob, Riad Mahmud, Azizul Alim, Ismat Ara Hena, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Md. Hafizur Rahman Jan 2011

A Pay-For-Performance Innovation Integrating The Quantity And Quality Of Care In Maternal, Newborn And Child Health Services In Bangladesh, Laila Rahman, Ubaidur Rob, Riad Mahmud, Azizul Alim, Ismat Ara Hena, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Md. Hafizur Rahman

Reproductive Health

The Population Council explored the possibilities of introducing a Pay-for-Performance (P4P) scheme in Bangladesh to improve maternal, newborn and child healthcare (MNCH) services. Based on the consultation and with guidance from the Government of Bangladesh, the Population Council and UNICEF provided technical assistance to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to test two P4P strategies for MNCH service providers to improve service volume and quality of care, and for poor clients to receive services subsidized through vouchers or coupons. The first strategy is a combination of pay-for-performance for providers and subsidized coupons for poor pregnant women, newborns, and under-five …

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When Girls' Lives Matter: Ending Forced And Early Marriage In Cameroon, Sajeda Amin, Andrea Lynch Jan 2011

When Girls' Lives Matter: Ending Forced And Early Marriage In Cameroon, Sajeda Amin, Andrea Lynch

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The program presented in this case study, the Association for the Struggle Against Violence Against Women (ALVF, from its name in French) in Cameroon, provides counseling, language and literacy training, economic support, and empowerment activities for girls who have fled (or been thrown out of) early or forced marriages to help them overcome their adversities. ALVF also seeks to bring about broader social change by highlighting in the public sphere—as well as among parents and husbands—the plight of girls who were married early and/or by force. Hence, ALVF’s prevention strategy is based on a broad understanding of the perceptions, expectations, …

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Maternal Defense: Breastfeeding Heightens Aggression By Reducing Stress, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Colin Holbrook, Sarah M. Coyne, E. Thomas Lawson Jan 2011

Maternal Defense: Breastfeeding Heightens Aggression By Reducing Stress, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Colin Holbrook, Sarah M. Coyne, E. Thomas Lawson

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Mothers in numerous species exhibit heightened aggression in defense of their young. This shift typically coincides with the duration of lactation in nonhuman mammals, which suggests that human mothers may display similarly accentuated aggressiveness while breast feeding. Here we report the first behavioral evidence for heightened aggression in lactating humans. Breast-feeding mothers inflicted louder and longer punitive sound bursts on unduly aggressive confederates than did formula-feeding mothers or women who had never been pregnant. Maternal aggression in other mammals is thought to be facilitated by the buffering effect of lactation on stress responses. Consistent with the animal literature, our results …

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