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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Women's Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 March 2023) | Viewed by 10567

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Prof. Dr. Shivalingappa Halli

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Max Rady College of Medicine, Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3E 0W3, Canada
Interests: demography; HIV/AIDS; maternal and child health policy research; monitoring and evaluation; research methodology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Motherhood and childhood are periods of particularly high vulnerability and they require special care and assistance during those times. Illness among mothers and children, particularly those that occur as major obstetric complications, is mostly unpredictable and can lead to catastrophic expenditures. Studies show that this pushes many households into poverty. The fear of unaffordable expenditures is often a deterrent for the timely uptake of health care services. In short, not many other inequities that exist in our society are as detrimental to the society as those that affect the health and survival of women and children. Therefore, for governments, it is a logical starting point to improve the living conditions and access to health care for mothers and children. Indeed, improving the health of mother and child is central to the world’s push to reduce poverty and inequality.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) played a major role in focusing global attention and resources towards improving maternal and child health. Given that many countries did not reach MDGs as intended, on 25th September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution for the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, including a goal to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. Taking the momentum forward in the post-2015 era, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to complete the work started by the MDGs, and build on them in a more holistic manner. The SDG Goal 3 aims to “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. It includes a reduction in maternal mortality and ending new-born and child deaths due to preventable causes. The specific targets for Goal 3 included by 2030 reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births. There is a goal to end preventable deaths of new-borns and children under 5 years of age by 2030, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under‑5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births. In view of this, the Special Issue is dedicated for maternal, new-born, and child health in order to take stock of progress made so far towards achieving SDGs.

Prof. Dr. Shivalingappa Halli
Guest Editor

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Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Keywords

maternal
new-born and child health
infant and neonatal mortality

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 386 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Infant Death Clustering in the Quarter of a Century in India: A Decomposition Analysis

by Mukesh Ranjan, Laxmi Kant Dwivedi and Shivalingappa Halli

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(21), 14384; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192114384 - 03 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1360

Abstract

The study aims to examine the clustering of infant deaths in India and the relative contribution of infant death clustering after accounting for the socio-economic and biodemographic factors that explain the decline in infant deaths. The study utilized 10 years of birth history data from three rounds of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS). The random effects dynamic probit model was used to decompose the decline in infant deaths into the contributions by the socio-economic and demographic factors, including the lagged independent variable, the previous infant death measuring the clustering of infant deaths in families. The study found that there has been a decline in the clustering of infant deaths among families during the past two and half decades. The simulation result shows that if the clustering of infant deaths in families in India was completely removed, there would be a decline of nearly 30 percent in the infant mortality rate (IMR). A decomposition analysis based on the dynamic probit model shows that for NFHS-1 and NFHS-3, in the total change of the probability of infant deaths, the rate of change for a given population composition contributed around 45 percent, and about 44 percent was explained by a compositional shift. Between NFHS-3 and NFHS-4, the rate of change for a given population composition contributed 86%, and the population composition for a given rate contributed 10% to the total change in the probability of infant deaths. Within this rate, the contribution of a previous infant was 0.8% and the mother’s age was 10%; nearly 31% was contributed by the region of residence, 69% by the mother’s education, and around 20% was contributed by the wealth index and around 8.7% by the sex of the child. The mother’s unobserved factors contributed more than 50 percent to the variability of infant deaths in all the survey rounds and was also statistically significant (p < 0.01). Bivariate analysis suggests that women with two or more infant losses were much less likely to have full immunization (10%) than women with no infant loss (62%), although institutional delivery was high among both groups of women. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Maternal, New-Born and Child Health)

12 pages, 1735 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Characteristics of Homebirth in Hungary: A Retrospective Cohort Study

by Girma A. Wami, Viktória Prémusz, György M. Csákány, Kovács Kálmán, Viola Vértes and Péter Tamás

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(16), 10461; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191610461 - 22 Aug 2022

Viewed by 1807

Abstract

Homebirth is legal and has been regulated by law in Hungary since 2012. Despite the obvious advantages of homebirth, it has not yet been broadly accepted, due to various opinions related to safety and risks associated with giving birth outside of a hospital. Our study aimed at exploring both real maternal and feto-neonatal characteristics associated with Hungarian homebirths. A total of 2997 cases were considered in support of our retrospective cohort study. In the examined period, there was a significant, continual rise in the number of homebirths by a rate of 0.22% on average per year. Aggregated maternal complications (primary uterine inertia, prolonged second stage labour, and third stage haemorrhage) were prevalent among homebirth cases (1.29% vs. 0.72%, p < 0.05) and were associated with an average of 11.77% rate of transfer to a health care institution. On the other hand, the rate of operative (vaginal or caesarean) delivery was 26.31% among institutionalized births. A slightly better Apgar score and relatively high rate (20%) of caesarean deliveries were correlated with institutionalized births (p < 0.05). However, the overall intervention rate was lower among homebirths (0.11% vs. 42.57%) than institutional birth cases (p < 0.001). Overall, homebirth is a reliable option for childbirth for healthy and low-risk mothers with uncomplicated pregnancies, which is reflected in the increasing number of deliveries at home in Hungary. Furthermore, utilizing the experiences of countries where homebirth is a long-established method may further improve the outcome of homebirths in Hungary. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Maternal, New-Born and Child Health)

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Review

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13 pages, 534 KiB

Open AccessReview

Effects of Infant Massage: A Systematic Review

by Rebecca Mrljak, Ann Arnsteg Danielsson, Gerth Hedov and Pernilla Garmy

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(11), 6378; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116378 - 24 May 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 6799

Abstract

Infant massage is performed in various international contexts. There is a need for an updated literature review on this topic. The purpose of the current review was to investigate the effects of infant massage. A systematic literature review was conducted to investigate the effects of infant massage on the following outcomes: pain relief, jaundice, and weight gain. The inclusion criteria were infants from 0–12 months. The literature search was performed until January 2022, using the CINAHL, PubMed, and PsycINFO databases, and included studies published from 2017–2021, returning 16 RCT/CCT studies with a total of 1416 participating infants. A review template was used by two independent reviewers to assess the risk of bias in the included studies. The results were synthesized and presented in the form of tables and narratives. In five of seven studies (n = 422 resp. n = 717) investigating pain relief, infant massage was found to alleviate pain. In all six studies (n = 455) investigating effects on infant massage and jaundice, beneficial effects were found on bilirubin levels. In all four studies (n = 244) investigating weight gain, increased weight gain was found among participants who received infant massage. The present literature review provides an indication of the current state of knowledge about infant massage and identifies its positive effects; however, the results must be interpreted with caution. Infant massage may be effective at relieving pain, improving jaundice, and increasing weight gain. Although statistically significant differences were not found between all experimental and control groups, no adverse effects of infant massage were observed. By placing the aforementioned effects in the context of child health care, infant massage may prove beneficial on these outcomes. Given the dearth of research on infant massage in the context of child health care, further research is warranted. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Maternal, New-Born and Child Health)

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