Public Health Disasters: A Global Ethical Framework


Book Description

This book presents the first critical examination of the overlapping ethical, sociocultural, and policy-related issues surrounding disasters, global bioethics, and public health ethics. These issues are elucidated under the conceptual rubric: Public health disasters (PHDs). The book defines PHDs as public health issues with devastating social consequences, the attendant public health impacts of natural or man-made disasters, and latent or low prevalence public health issues with the potential to rapidly acquire pandemic capacities. This notion is illustrated using Ebola and pandemic influenza outbreaks, atypical drug-resistant tuberculosis, and the health emergencies of earthquakes as focal points. Drawing on an approach that reckons with microbial, existential, and anthropological realities; the book develops a relational-based global ethical framework that can help address the local, anthropological, ecological, and transnational dynamics of the ethical issues engendered by public health disasters. The book also charts some of the critical roles that relevant local and transnational stakeholders may play in translating the proposed global ethical framework from the sphere of concept to the arena of action. This title is of immense benefit to bioethics scholars, public and global health policy experts, as well as graduate students working in the area of global health, public health ethics, and disaster bioethics.




Mothers, Mothering, and COVID-19


Book Description

There has been little public discussion on the devastating impact of Covid-19 on mothers, or a public acknowledgement that mothering is frontline work in this pandemic. This collection of 45 chapters and with 70 contributors is the first to explore the impact of the pandemic on mothers' care and wage labour in the context of employment, schooling, communities, families, and the relationships of parents and children. With a global perspective and from the standpoint of single, partnered, queer, racialized, Indigenous, economically disadvantaged, disabled, and birthing mothers, the volume examines the increasing complexity and demands of childcare, domestic labour, elder care, and home schooling under the pandemic protocols; the intricacies and difficulties of performing wage labour at home; the impact of the pandemic on mothers' employment; and the strategies mothers have used to manage the competing demands of care and wage labour under COVID-19. By way of creative art, poetry, photography, and creative writing along with scholarly research, the collection seeks to make visible what has been invisibilized and render audible what has been silenced: the care and crisis of motherwork through and after the COVID-19 pandemic.




Managing Complications in Pregnancy and Childbirth


Book Description

The emphasis of the manual is on rapid assessment and decision making. The clinical action steps are based on clinical assessment with limited reliance on laboratory or other tests and most are possible in a variety of clinical settings.




Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (Volume 2)


Book Description

The evaluation of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) by the Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (DCP3) focuses on maternal conditions, childhood illness, and malnutrition. Specifically, the chapters address acute illness and undernutrition in children, principally under age 5. It also covers maternal mortality, morbidity, stillbirth, and influences to pregnancy and pre-pregnancy. Volume 3 focuses on developments since the publication of DCP2 and will also include the transition to older childhood, in particular, the overlap and commonality with the child development volume. The DCP3 evaluation of these conditions produced three key findings: 1. There is significant difficulty in measuring the burden of key conditions such as unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, nonsexually transmitted infections, infertility, and violence against women. 2. Investments in the continuum of care can have significant returns for improved and equitable access, health, poverty, and health systems. 3. There is a large difference in how RMNCH conditions affect different income groups; investments in RMNCH can lessen the disparity in terms of both health and financial risk.




State of the World's Children


Book Description

On 20 November 2009, the global community celebrates the 20th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the unique document that sets international standards for the care, treatment and protection of all individuals below age 18. To celebrate this landmark, the United Nations Children's Fund is dedicating a special edition of its flagship report The State of the World's Children to examining the Convention's evolution, progress achieved on child rights, challenges remaining, and actions to be taken to ensure that its promise becomes a reality for all children.




Women's Mood Disorders


Book Description

This text provides background on the history of perinatal psychiatry, and discusses future directions in the field. It clearly defines perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs), which are the most common complication of pregnancy. When left untreated, PMADs are morbid and devastating for both the patient and their entire family. It reviews gold standard recommendations for the treatment of PMADs, including evidence-based psychotherapies, as well as risk-benefit analysis of psychotropic medication use in pregnancy and lactation. Additionally, common presentations of depression, anxiety, and trauma in pregnancy and postpartum women, as well as mania, psychosis, suicidal and homicidal thoughts are reviewed. Women’s Mood Disorders: A Clinician’s Guide to Perinatal Psychiatry highlights special considerations in pregnancy, including teenage pregnancies, hyperemesis gravidum, eating disorders, substance abuse disorders, as well as infertility, miscarriage and loss. The text concludes with outlining the importance of collaborative care in providing gold standard treatment of perinatal women and review documentation and legal considerations. This handbook will help educate and train future psychiatrists and OBGYNs in feeling confident and comfortable assessing and treating pregnant women who suffer from PMADs.




WHO Recommendations on Antenatal Care for a Positive Pregnancy Experience


Book Description

Within the continuum of reproductive health care, antenatal care provides a platform for important health-care functions, including health promotion, screening and diagnosis, and disease prevention. It has been established that, by implementing timely and appropriate evidence-based practices, antenatal care can save lives. Endorsed by the United Nations Secretary-General, this is a comprehensive WHO guideline on routine antenatal care for pregnant women and adolescent girls. It aims to complement existing WHO guidelines on the management of specific pregnancy-related complications. The guidance captures the complex nature of the antenatal care issues surrounding healthcare practices and delivery, and prioritizes person-centered health and well-being --- not only the prevention of death and morbidity --- in accordance with a human rights-based approach.




Maternal Immunization


Book Description

Immunization during pregnancy with currently recommended vaccines prevents infection in the mother, the unborn fetus, and the young infant, and there is an increasing focus from different stakeholders to use this approach for other infections of importance to protect these vulnerable groups. The aim of this Maternal Immunization book is to provide a contemporary overview of vaccines used in pregnancy (and the lactation period), with emphasis on aspects of importance for the target groups, namely, rationale for the use of vaccines in pregnancy, safety, immunogenicity (immunology), timing to vaccinate, repeat doses, protective effects in the mother, fetus, and infant, and public acceptance and implementation, of existing and of future vaccines. - Provides an overview of a quickly evolving topic. This will benefit the reader who wishes to rapidly become informed and up-to-date with new developments in this field - Suitable to a broad audience: scientific researchers, obstetricians, gynecologists, neonatologists, vaccinators, pediatricians, students, and industry. Maternal vaccination impacts a wide range of specialists - Allows health care professionals/researchers to gain insight into other aspects of vaccination in pregnancy outside of their specialism - Is coauthored by specialists from multiple disciplines, providing a diverse view of the subject, increasing its interest and appeal - Creates awareness of the current developments in this area of medicine and of the potential of maternal vaccination to improve the health of mothers and infants worldwide




Handbook of Life Course Health Development


Book Description

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. ​This handbook synthesizes and analyzes the growing knowledge base on life course health development (LCHD) from the prenatal period through emerging adulthood, with implications for clinical practice and public health. It presents LCHD as an innovative field with a sound theoretical framework for understanding wellness and disease from a lifespan perspective, replacing previous medical, biopsychosocial, and early genomic models of health. Interdisciplinary chapters discuss major health concerns (diabetes, obesity), important less-studied conditions (hearing, kidney health), and large-scale issues (nutrition, adversity) from a lifespan viewpoint. In addition, chapters address methodological approaches and challenges by analyzing existing measures, studies, and surveys. The book concludes with the editors’ research agenda that proposes priorities for future LCHD research and its application to health care practice and health policy. Topics featured in the Handbook include: The prenatal period and its effect on child obesity and metabolic outcomes. Pregnancy complications and their effect on women’s cardiovascular health. A multi-level approach for obesity prevention in children. Application of the LCHD framework to autism spectrum disorder. Socioeconomic disadvantage and its influence on health development across the lifespan. The importance of nutrition to optimal health development across the lifespan. The Handbook of Life Course Health Development is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians/professionals, and graduate students in developmental psychology/science; maternal and child health; social work; health economics; educational policy and politics; and medical law as well as many interrelated subdisciplines in psychology, medicine, public health, mental health, education, social welfare, economics, sociology, and law.