The
fetal origin of disease theory is what happens to a person in the womb affects
their health for the rest of their lives. So in regards to mother’s maternal
health the stress, nutrition and overall health of the mother directly affects
the health outcomes for her child in regards to chronic diseases such heart
disease, high blood pressure, stroke, obesity, osteoporosis and cancer. Birth
weight is directly affected by the health of the mother. Low birth weight
babies are more prone to becoming insulin resistant later. Also low birth
weight babies are twice as likely to have high blood pressure. This relates to
fetal origin of disease theory because smaller birth weight babies have less
nephrons in their kidneys at birth. Over our lives these start to diminish
which leads to increased blood pressure. Babies who start out with less nephrons
because of being a low birth weight will have an increased risk of high blood
pressure. The mother’s maternal health directly relates to her child’s birth
rate so protecting the child in to womb is the best solution to avoiding
chronic disease later in life. This is a link to David Barkers research on
fetal origins the web site will give you an in depth understanding about this
theory.
Maternal Health and
Nutrition
Proper nutrition plays a key role in
maternal health around the world. When looking at under developed countries,
such as Sub-Saharan Africa, we see the problem of under nutrition playing a big
role in a lot of their mortality rates at birth. Low body- mass in woman in
Africa and other countries resulted in a serious problem of maternal under
nutrition. Low body- mass could play a big role in the outcome of a pregnancy. With
a body mass index range of 10%-19% women are at a greater risk of losing their
babies and or themselves during birth. “The
nutritional status of a woman before and during pregnancy is important for a
healthy pregnancy outcome” (pg.2) It is important for a mother to make sure she
is eating healthy food that will not only benefit her, but also her baby. It is
essential that the mother makes sure that she gets the proper amount of vitamin
A because this helps with the pregnancy. New born babies need the right about
of vitamin A from their mother’s breast milk. The proper nutrition and knowledge
on eating healthy food will help mother’s in places like Sub-Saharan Africa
make sure that they have a healthy pregnancy and that the mother and the baby
will both come out of the pregnancy healthy and unharmed. Robert E Black and his fellow professors have
put together a very informational paper together about nutrition and maternal
health, taking a deeper look into this paper will answer any further questions
you may have. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673607616900.
Ashley Monfared
Maternal Health and Obstetric
fistula
As discussed
heavily in class, obstetric fistula is a leading problem in maternal health. Currently,
over two million women worldwide suffer from obstetric fistula. A majority of
these cases being in countries where there is a lack of access to medical
resources. Women who suffer from it are not only bare the physical
consequences, but also suffer from the psychological and social penalties.
Although obstetric fistulas can be fixed through surgery, it can be completely
avoided. It has been found that programs that delay the age of marriage,
increase access to maternal care, and improve nutrition can help both decrease
and prevent obstetric fistula.
Fixing a
fistula through surgery is a downstream approach. In class we discussed that a
lot of times, obstetric fistula occurs to those who have poor nutrition. By helping to incorporate healthy diets and
programs that advocate for women getting pregnant at an older age, this could
severely diminish the number of cases. You can read more at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2621054/
Thank you,
Group 2
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