Integrative Health: Maternal and Child Health

Maternal and Child Health
Receiving health education during one’s pregnancy is a critical aspect of prenatal care. Health education profoundly impacts maternal and child healthcare outcomes, including increased rates of initiation, low birth weight, reduced prematurity, and breastfeeding continuation (Herval et al., 2019). Healthcare providers and educators should perform and incorporate educational activities to create awareness among pregnant women help them prepare for childbirth and the postnatal period. Pregnant women represent various population groups in multiple contexts. Policymakers and healthcare providers need to examine the local, regional, and national strategies used to educate and promote healthcare outcomes of pregnant women. Education programs that target pregnant women are associated with potentially positive outcomes by expanding their knowledge in nutrition, breastfeeding, birth, family planning, child care, baby development, maternal health, social support, physical activity, and drug abuse.
Previous studies reveal that education, particularly among pregnant women, is positively related to desirable health outcomes and reduced infant, child, and maternal mortality (Mensch et al., 2019). Educated pregnant women are more likely to be healthier than their illiterate counterparts. Additionally, they are can better take care of their infants and children because they are knowledgeable about health and nutrition. Maternal education is important because it plays a critical role in preventing and eliminating poor health outcomes and illnesses. Healthcare providers should also focus on maternal literacy because it is associated with preventive-oriented health behaviors such as effective use of health services, prolonged breastfeeding periods, and exceptional child care. As a healthcare professional, knowledge in maternal education would be valuable in training pregnant women to improve the quality of healthcare delivery and maternal and child health outcomes. Healthcare professionals are also expected to guide pregnant on the strategies of improving the child’s healthcare outcomes, especially during the postpartum period.
According to the World Health Organization, maternal, infant, and child health has improved exponentially over the past 20 years because of technological advancement characterized by improved healthcare provision and the promotion of maternal education (Chen et al., 2018). Similar findings were obtained by Vikram and Vanneman (2020), who deduced that educating pregnant women has a causal impact on the health of the mother and her child. Their research links maternal literacy to child morbidity, immunization, nutrition, medical care, survival, and breastfeeding. Educating pregnant women increases the chances of a child’s survival by 20%, which means maternal literacy reduces immortality and health outcomes (Burroway & Hargrove, 2018). Furthermore, educating women enables them to understand the type of diet to adopt, when and how to seek healthcare services, and follow physician instructions and prescriptions. Both qualitative and quantitative data available from the previous researches point towards the benefits of educating pregnant women to improve maternal and child health outc...