Global Maternal Health: Addressing Challenges and Improving Women's Well-being

In this document we will discuss about Global Maternal Health and below are the summary points of this document:- Maternal health encompasses the well-being of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. Global organizations like the United Nations Populations Fund play a crucial role in addressing maternal health issues. Gender inequity, morbidity, and mortality are significant concerns affecting maternal health, particularly in regions like India.

Running head: GLOBAL MATERNAL HEALTH 1
Healthcare: Global Maternal Health
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Introduction
Maternal health can be defined as the health status that women tend to have during
pregnancy, at the birth of the children and the period that comes immediately after birth (also
known as the postpartum period) as per the provisions of Thornton et al. (2016). The subjects
that maternal healthcare addresses include but not limited to preconception, family planning
and both prenatal and postnatal care whose primary motive is to provide treatment aimed at
restoring the health of the women before and after giving birth. Organizations have been
created which act in different capacities to ensure that maternal health is taken into
consideration and improved accordingly. For, example, The United Nations Populations Fund
is a global body which is involved in the research on the trends in maternal health and
funding any development to curb any adverse situations which are a hindrance to the healthy
living of the women of the maternal category (Alkema et al. 2016). The United Nations
Populations Fund once reported that approximately 290 000 women die off during pregnancy
and post pregnancy implications (Wijesooriya et al. 2016). The deaths are understood to
emanate from problems including disrupted labor and severe bleeding. The importance of
studying global maternal health is to equip learners from a number of subjects to do a critical
examination of the current global maternal health and help based on their own
professionalisms.
With references to a region in the Middle East, this study will majorly talk about the
current status of maternal health, gender inequity, morbidity, and mortality. Nonetheless, the
paper also presents the determinants of health conditions in India and any strategies put in
place to curb the situation in both the present and the future.

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Current Status of Gender Inequity, Maternal Health, Morbidity, and Mortality
Gender Equity: - India recognizes women as being inferior people in society. And for
that reason, they should be under the custody of different people depending on their ages and
family status. When they are still young and commonly known as girls, they should be under
the guardianship of their fathers. At the time of their married life, they are recognized to be
under the stewardship of their husbands till becoming elderly when they will seek aid from
their husbands and male children (Wijesooriya et al. 2016). Most of the Job opportunities are
given to men compared to their women counterparts. This decision has had severe impacts on
the lives of women with regards to maternal health.
The current Indian society views both men and women as equal especially in the job
allocation and in decision making. The most recent rule that was introduced is that which
advocates for the two-thirds gender rule. The law provides that in any organization or
working environment, there must be either two men and a woman out of three employees or
two women and a man out of every three employees (Marmot, 2018). The rule does not only
apply in the employment sector but has also been conveyed and used in the political
representation of a people. The law enhances diversity which creates a better working
environment in every organization, government committees and even in the government as a
whole.
Maternal Morbidity and Mortality
Morbidity and mortality share a relationship with health issues. Morbidity refers to
the situation of being attacked or of having unhealthy conditions while mortality records the
deaths resulting from maternal matters as for the case of this study (Silverman et al. 2016).
The current statistics provide a glimpse showing that the trend in the mortality and morbidity
in India has been significantly declining. India is also known to be the home of most

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medicines, and they can contain the deaths that would arise from maternal and post-maternal
cases.
With comparison to other Middle East countries, India is one of the countries with the
lowest cases of maternal morbidity and mortality. A research by Dhirar et al. (2018). shows
that the country has a figure approximated to be around 174 deaths out of 100 000 live
births per year. The value is got from research that was done during 2015 and the number
translated into only 17% of the total deaths that strike Indian citizens whether from accidents,
chronic diseases and other causes (Dhirar et al. 2018). India is known to have a large
population which is approximated to be around 1.4 billion citizens and taking an example of
women being more than more, then 174 deaths out of every 100 000 live births in a year
could be termed as a very negligible number thus ranking India as one of the best countries in
which a person can live (Narasimha et al. 2018). The insignificant number can also be
attributed to the fact that the Indian government has very many programs which are aimed at
improving the health status of citizens in various dimensions.
The causes of maternal deaths are inclusive of various issues that are striking India as
a country. India faces a lot of dry seasons which have resulted in a high level of poverty.
Subsistence agriculture is failing as people have to rely on the perennial rains to provide
favorable conditions for crops (Filippi et al. 2016). The effect of poverty is that the family
cannot sufficiently provide for both the mother and the new-born. Therefore, the deficiency
of essential body requirements will automatically result in impaired health conditions causing
the death of the infants. Poor hygienic conditions are also experienced in most of the places
in India and could be responsible for the cause of some diseases (Corburn & Sverdlik, 2017).
The major cities in India are not equally developed. Some parts of such cities experience
slum conditions which are characterized by poor hygiene, poverty, poor garbage disposal and
effects of such kind. The slums include but not limited to Dharavi in Mumbai, Kusumpur

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Pahari in Delhi and Chand Mari in Guwahati (Bhattacharyya, 2015). Other significant causes
of maternal mortality include but not limited to miscarriages, ignorance especially by
teenagers giving birth and cases of abortion which turns out to be dangerous to both the
mother and the child.
Social determinants of health that have impacted on gender inequity, maternal health,
morbidity, and mortality
The health of people is dependent on several factors with which they interact. There is
fewer number of deaths reported concerning people whose ages range from 10 years to 30
years(Bhattacharyya, 2015) . Therefore, the statement gives an insight that most deaths in
India occur at the age of fewer than ten years. Research has revealed that the most significant
social determinants of life include poverty, education, food security, women empowerment
and the burden of diseases (Filippi et al. 2016). The effects of the mentioned social
determinants of health are discussed below.
Poverty
India is known as one of the poorest countries in continental Asia. The high levels of
poverty may be as a result of poor government planning, insufficient economic resources, and
other related factors. India is found in the Middle East, and as always known, a large part of
the Indian land is not put under any productive activity (Filippi et al. 2016). Agriculture as an
economic activity in India is not doing well enough to sustain the massive population in the
country.
Similarly, most of the agriculturalists in India rely on rainwater as their primary
source of water for the sustenance of their crops. This method of agriculture is viewed to
yield seasonal produce which means it might not be enough for both the government, the

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citizens and the farmers. Poverty and ill-health are related in two ways so that either poverty
give rise to unhealthy conditions or ill-health increases the levels of poverty.
The poor people in the society always make harsh decisions which come back to ruin
their lives. They make decisions which may put food on their tables for a time and not being
cautious on the future effects of their choices. The poor class is also vulnerable to poor health
conditions as they cannot afford most of the health services (Corburn & Hildebrand, 2015).
Poverty is also caused by discriminations base on politics, social units, and economic
activities. A society with poor health conditions also becomes vulnerable to debt because of
the more copious amounts of funds they would use to restore their better living conditions.
Education
The level of education that a person receives is significant in determining his/her
health state us. The levels of education in India are categorized in such a way that every level
has some value to add to the understanding of a learner about health (Güneş, 2015). People
who reach university level can contract certain diseases and not others. In other situations,
those who have good education tend to ignore the cultural practices that are followed by
communities for the newborns and their mothers (Garg et al. 2015). Some cultural practices
may create a platform for contracting diseases. For example, if a culture bars a person from
giving birth in the hospital, then under complicated cases where local midwifery cannot
apply, there would be a possible loss of life.
The highest level of education (which entails colleges and universities) is known for
the production of the best world doctors. Most of the Indian doctors get employment in their
country, and they are equipped with the knowledge to do research works regarding the
reduction and prevention of maternal morbidity and mortality (Thornton et al. 2016). The
higher registration of students and more so girls into the various levels of education is

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responsible for the reduced number of pregnancies which consequently reduces maternal
health cases. The situation gave rise to a society containing fewer mothers who could take
care of themselves and the responsibility of their families. In an educated country, many
citizens have higher levels of income which could sustain the victims (Graham et al. 2016).
Many people in India have pursued education past the high school level, and this may be the
reason why the rate of maternal mortality is lower compared to other countries in the sub-
Saharan region.
Women Empowerment
In the past decades, the education of girl-child in India was not recognized. Most of
the ladies were allowed to pursue a scholarship of up to the end of the primary level and
could afterward be allowed to get married in exchange with wealth to the family.
Bhattacharyya (2015) provides that this trend went on for a long time resulting in the
significant imbalance in the ratio of educated men to women. However, with the rise of
women empowerment that has spread all over the country, many girls have completed the
highest level of education in top Indian and world universities. The enlightenment that
women and girls have been subjected to has dramatically increased their understanding of the
life around them (Garg et al. 2015). They have got the recognition and can attend to both pre
and postnatal care which helps improve their conditions and the status of their babies even
after birth.
The increased education of women is responsible for the reduced teenage pregnancies
that are currently experienced in the country of India. They have, therefore, resolved into the
pursuance of training and see teenage pregnancies as a waste of time and resources as
highlighted by Agarwal, (2018). They would instead get a foundation that would sustain their
lives in the future than get married to depend on their husbands. Women have also got a

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better understanding of the clinical requirements which are aimed at giving them and their
children a better life until they can depend on themselves.
Strategies Used to Address the Social Determinants of Maternal Health
Addressing the social determinants of maternal health requires a country to look
deeply into each of the determinants and doing everything thing possible to ensure that they
are either eliminated or improved. Discussed below are some of the strategies that the Indian
government and other relevant organizations have put to improve the maternal health of the
women citizens and their children.
Education: - Indian government introduced the strategy of affirmative action whose
principal aim is to increase the enrolment of discriminated students. The students may be
distinguished on the platforms of gender, race, family financial backgrounds and the
geographical locations (Chatterjee et al. 2016). The response to the motive has dramatically
increased the number of ladies enrolling for their studies.
The government also released incentives to cater for both secondary and tertiary
education. The motive of these incentives was to keep people busy while learning to avoid
the numerous cases of teenage pregnancies which are characterized by ignorance in
sustaining the maternal requirements. India has also resolved into building vocational and
technical training institutions for those who cannot afford to pursue a university education.
Poverty: - Agricultural improvement and the alleviation of poverty is one of the issues
India is currently addressing (Osamor & Grady, 2016). The creation of water sources would
ensure a reduction in the overreliance of rainwater to perform agricultural activities. Hospital
Incentives: the teaching of health and medicine courses in the Indian universities has been
made to look like a culture of the Indians. The government also release funds which are
meant for research work aimed at improving any form of health morbidity as shown in the

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reports by Pega & Veale, (2015). In this way, many Indians and especially women, have a
better understanding of how to deal with their maternal health situations.
Strategies to achieve United Nations Sustainability Goals 2016-20130
 India has put in place a procedure known as the RAFT strategy to reduce infant
mortality. RAFT is an abbreviation which stands for the Review of medical
information, making the services Accessible by Funding infrastructure and
therapeutic interventions (Kumar, Kumar & Vivekadhish, 2016). Finally, the
personnel is put to proper Training.
 The government has resolved to encourage to support education in every way
possible and to ensure that at least 95% of the Indian pollution get a formal education
and has a better understanding of the most recent technological advancements
(Chatterjee et al. 2016).
 A resolution has been reached, and the Indian government has increased the
incentives meant to support agriculture. Thornton et al. (2016) indicate that irrigation
will be done through water sources created unlike waiting for rainwater. The strategy
will help do away with poverty.
Conclusion
Most of the problems regarded maternal healthcare, morbidity and mortality are
experienced in the third world countries. One primary reason that is always attributed to this
situation is the motion of primitivism in terms of education and healthcare systems. Similar
issues are viewed to be the causative agents of maternal morbidity and mortality in Asian
countries like India. The differences that contribute to the low number of deaths are the
strategies put in place to deal with the situation. In India, for example, the government,
through the relevant branches and organizations has tried to enlighten the citizens on the

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effects of social beliefs regarding healthcare and have come up with strategies to help
improve the standards of living of the citizens. Poverty is a big issue in India and most of the
world countries. Therefore, its elimination would do a vital service to the health of the
people. In addition to the steps that India has made as a country, they should increase the
incentives in three major departments of education, healthcare and women empowerment.

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