Maternal and Newborn Care - Research Proposal Example

Maternal and Newborn Care al Affiliation) Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Needs ment 4 Goals and objectives 5 Literature review 6 Methodology 7 Conclusion 8 Introduction Maternal healthcare deals with the health of a woman during the pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period. It is concerned with the health of the prospective mother from the period before conception all through to the point of giving birth. The period after giving birth is also important. Care for maternal health is done with the aim of reducing maternal morbidity and mortality. Before conception, maternal health would involve educating the potential mother, health promotion, screening of women within the productive age to eliminate any problems that may interfere with future pregnancies (World Health Organization, 2003). During the pregnancy, proper care should be taken to ensure no complications are encountered and in case of any problems, they should be handled with urgency. After childbirth, the issue of newborn care then comes into play concern about the newborn health, nutrition and development. In rural and peri-urban populations in India, proper maternal healthcare is not adhered to during pregnancy. Due to this, children are born with numerous health complications. The mother may die or lose the child. Majority of these take place because of the lack of access to adequate information on proper maternal health. There also exist a lot of cultural beliefs and practices that hinder the women from accessing heath services and information from health care providers. There is also the problem of high level of poverty that limits the amount of disposable income that can be spent on medical care. Needs statement Matters concerning health need to be handled with a certain level of urgency especially those involving maternal health and newborn health. Most of the problems encountered have very simple solution but the absence of adequate information among folks in rural and peri-urban settlements is causing devastating health effects. Knowledge particularly on proper maternal nutrition is lacking. Folic acid is an important variety of the vitamin B9. Extremely water-soluble and in occurs in the natural state as folate. In fortified foods, folate occurs as folic acid. Folic acid is important for a pregnant woman it aids in proper growth and development during pregnancy (World Health Organization, 2003). It significantly diminishes the probability of a baby being born with any defects. These defects always mainly occur to the brain and the spinal code. Folic acid achieves this through the development of the neural tube. Consuming a diet-containing vitamin B9 reduces the chances of getting any defects by up to seventy percent. Folic acid is found in the fruits vegetables and cereals. However, the amount of folic acid is not sufficient to satisfy the requirements of a pregnant woman. To bridge the deficit, one has to take fortified food or nutritional supplements. Most of the women in rural and semi rural areas of India rely only on vitamin B9 from natural sources. The deficit results in terrible consequences; children are born with health complications and this causes death sometime after birth. From this study, the results are targeted at developing ways and means through which proper information on maternal nutrition can be developed and disseminated to populations in rural and peri-urban areas of India. This is because most of the problems occur due to lack of adequate information on proper maternal nutrition (Peters, 2002). Goals and objectives To determine how disparities in income cause lack of proper maternal health in rural and peri-urban populations in India. To establish how the information gap that exists in the rural populations can be bridged. To establish the most appropriate ways through which food fortification can be done for diets to increase the uptake of folic acid, To demystify the taboos that discourages the women from urban and peri-urban areas from accessing health services at health centers and home. To enlighten the women on the need to of consume food rich in folic acid. Enlighten the people on how to take the best care before, during and after pregnancy. Literature review Various scholarly works have been done on the subject relating to the importance of folic acid in diet of a pregnant woman and how maternal health in rural and peri-urban settlements in India have caused serious health consequences. (World Health Organization, 2003) Looks at the productive woman, conception, childbirth and proper care after childbirth, it analyses the best practice and expectant women should care for themselves including the diet. (Akhtar, 2004) This publication analyses the health care system in India. It looks at the planning and pattern for delivery of health care in India. The book discusses the disparities that exist in health care systems between the relatively rich urban dwellers and the population that lives in rural and peri-urban settlements. It shows the extent to which rural healthcare is unplanned. It also highlights consequences of this to maternal and newborn health care. (Peters, 2002) This book looks at how better health care systems can be achieved for the poor rural population in India. It discusses the findings of the research on the health of the rural population and the possible solutions to these problems after consideration of the recommendations. It presents several cheaper nutritional options that can be used to handle them lack of proper maternal nutrition. (Srilakshmi, 2006) Looks at the need for folic acid in food consumed by an expectant woman, the book looks at the nutritional importance of folic acid to growth and development. It analyses how folate is absorbed into the body and the importance in contributing to proper child development. (Preedy et al.2013) Analyses food fortification policies in India, in particular seek to find out why there are no existing government policies that guide the inclusion of folic acid to basic food commodities. Methodology The rural and peri-urban populations in India suffer due to lack of adequate information on how to take appropriate care before during and after pregnancy. This is compounded by the low-income levels experienced by rural population. There is also a problem of disparities in government planning and allocation of resources to health care facilities. Lack of information is the major problem especially on the importance of taking a diet rich in folic acid. The most effective audiovisual method is the use of instructors who have charts containing all the relevant information (Peters, 2002). Information on the proper sources of nutrition, foods that contain adequate levels of folic acid should be included in these charts. Charts that contain information on proper maternal health and the importance of seeking help from health facilities will be included in the charts. Instructors will be trained on proper communication procedures and what populations to target with the initiatives. These instructors will then move from one rural area to another educating the local women on the importance of supplementing the normal diet with the diet rich in vitamin B9. These teachers will also instruct the women on how to obtain appropriate amounts of folic acid without having to spend money on expensive supplements. This is through proper combination of the food varieties available to them. After a period, the program is re-evaluated and recommendations made based on the level of impact achieved. Conclusion Folic acid is very essential for the diet of a pregnant woman. It is imperative for growth and development. Absence of folic acid causes numerous deformities. Women in rural populations in India suffer due to lack of information, poverty and inequalities in the distribution of medical resources (Akhtar, 2004). However, these problems could be solved easily by providing information to the women on the need for proper maternal nutrition. References Akhtar, R. (2004). India: Health care patterns and planning. New Delhi: A P H Publishing Corp. World Health Organization. (2003). Pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum and newborn care: A guide for essential practice. Geneva [u.a.: World Health Organization. Peters, D. H. (2002). Better health systems for Indias poor: Findings, analysis, and options. Washington, DC: World bank. Preedy, V. R., Srirajaskanthan, R., & Patel, V. B. (2013). Handbook of food fortification and health: From concepts to public health applications. New York, NY: Humana Press. Srilakshmi, B. (2006). Nutrition science. S.l.: New Age International. Read More