Maternal and Child Health - Essay Example

One of the things that we should know about maternal, infant and child health are factors to morbidity and mortality rates among the population segments, which have been classified as vulnerable. Inaccessibility to health care services is the major factor in morbidity and mortality rates because of undermined prevention and treatment efforts. A geographical barrier such as distance from care facilities and care personnel as well as the cost of care services are some of the factors to inaccessibility and means that the population segments cannot receive required care to prevent and treat diseases, illnesses, and injuries. Food security and lack of knowledge on nutrition is another factor to mortality and morbidity of the population segments as they contribute to weak body defense mechanisms and physical strength to expose people to accidents and vulnerability to infections. Other factors to mortality and morbidity are poverty, lack of education, and poor childcare. Knowledge of these factors is important because it empowers people to the improvement of the segments’ quality of life through such initiatives as awareness programs and social responsibility towards accessibility of care (McKenzie, Pinger, and Kotecki, 2011).

Another significant knowledge from the chapter is the trend in mortality rates by ethnic groups. While mortality rates among Non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanics are below six, the rate among Non-Hispanic Black is more than 13. This identifies a high-level vulnerability among blacks and requires knowledge development on causes of the relatively high rates and potential intervention measures for fair quality of life across ethnic groups. The trend in mortality by ethnic groups is also similar to that of child mortality rates, an observation that identifies a significant and long-term problem that should be addressed to reduce the rates among blacks. The mortality rate in the United States is also among the highest in the world and this identifies the need for evidence-based practice, based on evidence from countries such as Singapore and Sweden (McKenzie, Pinger, and Kotecki, 2011).

The chapter also identifies the role of the family in determining the quality of infant and child health. Children who are born to married mothers, for example, have a better quality of life than children who are born to single mothers and factors such as lower child weight at birth and higher mortality rates among children born to single mothers that those born to married mothers explains this. The difference is further significant because of the increasing trend in the proportion of women who are single mothers. Teen pregnancy also contributes to the rate. Family planning and its role in preventing unwanted pregnancy and abortion is another issue that is important to women and infant health. This is because even though women, subject to the Roe v. Wade case, have a right to abortion, preventing unwanted pregnancies through family planning have less adverse physical and psychological effects. The role of education and guidance on maternal deaths is also discussed. Premature birth, which accounts for more than 10 percent of total births, is another important issue from the topic because of the significant expenditure that it commands. Measures such as proper prenatal care, avoidance of drug abuse and domestic violence, and management of chronic conditions can, however, reduce the premature birth rate. Childhood mortality and morbidity are other significant issues in the topic and preventing unintentional injuries and diseases and proper treatment of children are solutions (McKenzie, Pinger, and Kotecki, 2011).