Maternal Infant Health Issue

Maternal Infant Health Issue: Insufficient Accessibility to Maternal Health Services among Single Pregnant Women in Nova-Scotia
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Insufficient Accessibility to Maternal Health Services among Single Pregnant Women in Nova-Scotia
Introduction
The well-being of both mothers and children is one of the objectives all public health institutions strive to achieve. Their well-being determines the health of the nation's next generation. Maternal infant health addresses various health issues including health behaviors, health systems, and the indicators affecting the health and wellness, quality of life of women and children and their families (United Nations Development Programme, 2011). In Nova-Scotia, a majority of single pregnant women have a major issue of inaccessibility to maternal health services, owing to various social determinants affecting them. There is need to develop appropriate programs that would help reduce the severity of the problems facing the women in the region.
Overview of Maternal Infant Health
Mothers’ well- being check begins before conception and pertains to good nutrition and healthy lifestyle, and continues to the prenatal care by preventing problems arising during pregnancy. An ideal result in this process is to realize a full term pregnancy especially for single pregnant women without several interventions to deliver a healthy baby. During the postpartum period, a positive environment is important to support both the physical and emotional needs of the single mothers, the baby and other family members. Maternal health main focus begins from pregnancy to childbirth (United Nations Development Programme, 2011).
All pregnant women including single women should receive the required care at all the stages of the maternal process to have higher chances of safe delivery. Various strategies have been put in place for women to access maternal health services. Several issues still hinder single pregnant women from accessing these important services placing them at risk. Pregnancy and childbirth impact greatly on the emotional physical, mental and the socio-economic health of single women. Pregnancy –related health outcomes are determined by issues of race, ethnicity, age and income (United Nations Development Programme, 2011).
Social Determinant of Health among Single Pregnant Women in Nova Scotia
According to the World Health Organization, social determinants of health are indicators of improved health (United Nations Development Programme, 2011). Theoretically, social determinants of health are the social structures, mechanisms of resource redistribution, education, the basic condition of life and work, the existence of social support networks, the support network availability, and accessibility to health services. It is assumed that during the early infancy stages, physical, social and the cognitive development of single pregnant women relates to their psychological and economic environment leading to positive health outcomes (Smith, Gullette, & Schnepf, 2005).
However, Nova-Scotia has seen the largest increase in maternal death at approximately 5.9 maternal deaths per100, 000 deliveries from 2009 to 2010 (Lisonkova et al., 2011). This is a surprisin...