What are the political dimensions that are revealed in women’s preferences for health care during pregnancy and childbirth? The answers to this question vary from one community to the next, and often from woman to the next, although the trends in the Global North and South are strikingly different. Employing three conceptual frames; medicalization, the public-private distinction, and intersectionality, Candace Johnson examines these differences through the narratives of women in Canada, the United States, Cuba, and Honduras. In Canada and the United States, women from privileged and marginalized social groups demonstrate the differences across the North-South divide, and women in Cuba and Honduras speak to the realities of severely constrained decision-making in developing countries. Each case study includes narratives drawn from in-depth interviews with women who were pregnant or who had recently had children. Johnson argues that women’s expressed preferences in different contexts reveal important details about the inequality that they experience in that context, in addition to as various elements of identity. Both inequality and identity are affected by the ways in which women experience the division between public and private lives – the life of the community and the life of the home and family – as well as the consequences of intersectionality – the combinations of various sources of disadvantage and women’s reactions to these, either in the form of resistance or compliance. The rigorous and highly original cross cultural and comparative research on health, gender, poverty and social context makes Maternal Transition an excellent contribution to global maternal health policy debates.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and other global nutrition and health agencies recommend nutrition actions throughout the life-course to address malnutrition in all its forms. In this report, we examined how Sri Lanka’s nutrition policies and programs addressed the recommended nutrition actions, determinants, and outcomes. We reviewed population-based surveys to assess the availability of data on nutrition actions, nutrition outcomes, and determinants of these outcomes; we also assessed the data availability in administrative data systems for selected nutrition actions. Our policy review identified a total of 53 recommended evidence-based nutrition actions, of which 47 nutrition actions were applicable in Sri Lanka; of these, 44 were addressed in the country’s nutrition policies and programs. Nutrition actions not included in current policies and programs were food supplementation during adolescence and food supplementation for complementary feeding during early childhood. Although policies addressed daily or intermittent iron and folic acid (IFA) supplementation during preconception, the country’s preconception care program has not yet implemented it. Sri Lanka’s multisectoral nutrition plan recognized and addressed all key determinants of nutrition except women’s status; the country’s multisectoral nutrition plan and its national nutrition policy were found to also express an intent to track the progress of all Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) nutrition targets for maternal, infant, and young child nutrition and also the indicators related to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Our data review found that out of 44 actions that were addressed by Sri Lanka’s policies and programs, the population-based surveys we reviewed contained data on only 22 actions; similarly, out of 15 selected actions we reviewed in the administrative data system, data was available on only five actions. Data was not available in either of the surveys on the following interventions: various types of counseling during pregnancy, optimal timing (delayed) of umbilical cord clamping, indicators related to newborn care and care of low-birth-weight infants, postpartum IFA supplementation and breastfeeding counseling and around delivery and in the postpartum period, counseling on infant and young child feeding (IYCF), growth monitoring and identification and treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) during early childhood. In the administrative data source data was not available on IFA supplementation, nutrition counseling and advice on consuming IFA during pregnancy, IFA supplementation during lactation, micronutrient powders (MNPs) and zinc supplementation and on identification and management of SAM and MAM during early childhood. Population-based surveys contained data on most of the indicators on determinants and on all indicators on outcomes. In conclusion, Sri Lanka’s policy landscape for nutrition is robust; however, the gaps in data availability for tracking progress on nutrition are much greater than are the gaps in policies and programs for addressing recommended actions. Future population-based surveys and future modifications of other data systems should aim to fill the identified data gaps for nutrition actions.

In this volume, a leading group of scholars pose the question, has the Philippine economy rejoined the dynamic East Asian mainstream and, if so, what set of policies and priorities are required to maintain the strong economic momentum of recent years? Successive chapters address issues related to growth and poverty, infrastructure and urbanization, education, health, the environment, energy, development finance, and governance and institutions. The book has been written with a broad audience in mind. First and foremost it is for readers in, and interested in, this fascinating and important country with a population that now exceeds a hundred million. Second, it will appeal to those in the broader development community with an interest in the analytical and policy challenges that democratic, middle-income countries face as they struggle to lift their citizens out of poverty and to achieve broad-based and environmentally sustainable growth.

The aim of this book is to provide a summary of the current concepts and challenges in global maternal and child health in a format that appeals to students of the subject, the general public, and current practitioners in the field. It also provides study exercises that may inform tutors on undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Having a child remains one of the biggest health risks for women worldwide. Fifteen hundred women die every day while giving birth. That's a half a million mothers every year. UNICEF's flagship publication, The State of the World's Children 2009, addresses maternal mortality, one of the most intractable problems for development work.The difference in pregnancy risk between women in developing countries and their peers in the industrialised world is often termed the greatest health divide in the world. A woman in Niger has a one in seven chance of dying during the course of her lifetime from complications during pregnancy or delivery. That's in stark contrast to the risk for mothers in America, where it's one in 4,800 or in Ireland, where it's just one in 48,000. Addressing that gap is a multidisciplinary challenge, requiring an emphasis on education, human resources, community involvement and social equality. At a minimum, women must be guaranteed antenatal care, skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetrics, and postpartum care. These essential interventions will only be guaranteed within the context of improved education and the abolition of discrimination.

Reproductive Epidemiology introduces epidemiology students and health practitioners to a range of methodologies used to collect data and conduct analysis on reproductive epidemiology. The focus is to provide guidance on the use of methods appropriate for challenging and sensitive research topics, including sexual behavior, abortion, illicit drug use, and sexual abuse.

Diwan and Galal looks at the structure and prospects of the Middle East economies after the 2011 Uprisings, focusing on issues of economic growth, inequality, the impact of oil, and the unfolding political transitions. On the growth question, the book looks into the extent of structural transformation of the economy, the political economy reasons for the lack of structural change, and the external conditions in the EU and in the GCC that underpin the lack of structural change. On inequality, the book offers new measures of equality of opportunity in human development and in the job market, and it also reviews the complex political economy of subsidy removal. Regarding natural resources, the volume provides three innovations: connecting the notion of 'oil curse' to the global phenomena of asset bubbles; evidence that resource curse effects do not rise monotonically with the size of the resource rent, but rather, according to an inverted U shape; and an extension of the concept of rent to the other non-oil rents that are also predominant in the region. Finally, the volume places the political transition in the region in a global perspective using various methods – theoretical, comparative, and empirical, and it explores the relationship between democracy in its variety of forms and economic development.

Early childhood is the most important stage of human development yet in Middle East and North Africa countries there is little research and inadequate investment in this crucial stage of life. This book covers risk, protective factors, policies and programs that can address inequality and shortfalls in the early years of life.

This book addresses the politics of global health and social justice issues around birth, focusing on dynamic communities that have chosen to speak truth to power by reforming dysfunctional health care systems or creating new ones outside the box. The chapters present models of childbirth at extreme ends of a spectrum—from the conflict zones and disaster areas of Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, and Indonesia, to high-risk tertiary care settings in China, Canada, Australia, and Turkey. Debunking notions about best care, the volume illustrates how human rights in health care are on a collision course with global capitalism and offers a number of specific solutions to this ever-increasing problem. This volume will be a valuable resource for scholars and students in anthropology, sociology, health, and midwifery, as well as for practitioners, policy makers, and organizations focused on birth or on social activism in any arena.

Perfect for: - • Bachelor of Midwifery students - • Postgraduate Midwifery students - • Combined Nursing degree students - • Combined Nursing degree students Midwifery: Preparation for Practice 3e is the definitive midwifery text for Australian and New Zealand midwifery students. The third edition continues to reinforce the established principles of midwifery philosophy and practice—that of working in partnership with women and midwifery autonomy in practice and from this perspective, presents the midwife as a primary healthcare practitioner. It carefully examines the very different maternity care systems in Australia and New Zealand, exploring both autonomous and collaborative practice and importantly documents the recent reforms in Australian midwifery practice. Midwifery: Preparation for Practice 3e places women and their babies safely at the centre of midwifery practice and will guide, inform and inspire midwifery students, recent graduates and experienced midwives alike. - • Key contributors from Australia and New Zealand - • Critical Thinking Exercises and Research Activities - • Midwifery Practice Scenarios - • Reflective Thinking Exercises and Case Studies - • Instructor and Student resources on Evolve, including Test Bank questions, answers to Review Questions and PowerPoint presentations. - • New chapter on Models of Health - • Increased content on cultural considerations, human rights, sustainability, mental health, obesity in pregnancy, communication in complex situations, intervention, complications in pregnancy and birth and assisted reproduction - • Midwifery Practice Scenarios throughout.