Maternal Health And Child Health - 2339 Words

Introduction In 2015, 303 000 women died due to pregnancy or childbirth-related complications and 5.9 million children died under the age of 5 (WHO, 2016). Furthermore, over 45% of the child deaths occur during the first 28 days of life. The majority of the maternal and child deaths occur in low and middle-income countries and, moreover, a child from a poor background in these countries is 56 times more likely not to survive the first 5 years of life (Lassi et al., 2014). The problem of poor maternal, neonatal and child health persists in the majority of low- and lower-middle income countries and it largely contributes to the high rates of premature mortality. Preterm birth complications, birth asphyxia and birth-related trauma,†¦show more content†¦There is a vast number of different interventions available to improve maternal and child health. However, it is still unclear which interventions are the more appropriate for the low- and middle-income countries, where the burd en is the heaviest and healthcare resources are very scarce. To understand whether the maternal and child health needs of poor communities are best served by focusing attention on the delivery of a few but cheap and effective interventions, this paper examines current situation and interventions available in two different countries - Ghana and Sri Lanka. This essay also emphasizes the importance to consider existing disagreements about how the policies and interventions should be delivered to address the needs of poor communities. Ghana and Sri Lanka. An overview of the current situation. The case study of two countries from low- and middle-income groups would be well suited to investigate what interventions would be the best to address the maternal and child needs in these communities. In order to compare the effectiveness of interventions, a country with high maternal and child mortality - Ghana (low-income group) and a country with relatively low mortality - Sri Lanka (lower-midd le income group) were examined. These countries are relatively