DEPARTMENT: COMMUNITY MEDICINE
FACULTY : CLINIC MEDICINE
COURSE CODE: PUH 831
COURSE TITLE: REPRODUCTIVE AND FAMILY HEALTH
HIGHLIGHTS
INTRODUCTION
MATERNAL HEALTH
CHILD HEALTH
FAMILY PLANNING
CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of evaluation is to help a programme achieve its objective. It is a continuous process that are based on routine monitoring of key indicators of performance Evaluation of the Family Health programme is therefore the evaluation of the key components of the family health services.
The components of the family health service include:
* The maternal health
* Child health
* Family planning
Maternal Health
Maternal health is one of the components of family health system
The main objective of family health is to ensure that the pregnant mother:
– Remain healthy throughout pregnancy.
– have healthy babies and
– Recover fully from the physiological changes that take place during pregnancy and delivery.
Complications of pregnancy, and child birth are the major causes of death among women of reproductive age in many developing countries. Maternal mortality rates are more than 50 times higher in developing countries than in developed countries. Maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy regardless of the site of duration of that pregnancy.
The maternal mortality ratio per 100,000 in Africa with Nigeria inclusive is 640, in East Asia. It is 50 per 100,000 and in developed countries 20 per 100,000.
The major causes of death are haemonhage, obstructed labour, sepsis, eclampsia and abortions.
About 40% of women experience complications during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperal, 15% of this number develops potentially life-threatening problems.
In Nigeria maternal mortality rate ranges form 10-16 per 1000 live births. In many countries, maternal mortality comprises of 25% of all deaths of women of reproductive ages.
CHILD HEALTH
Child health is the second component of the family health. In the past decades there has been tremendous improvement in the health of children throughout the world.
The WHO and UNICEF spearheaded child survival programmes that made significant contributions that lead to the fall in child mortality rates in most developing countries. The first five years is the most critical period in the life of the child.
In the developed countries, the under five mortality rate is below 10 per 1000 live birth but in the developing countries the rates are over 100 per 1000. The under five mortality in Africa is 4.6 million. 7o% of child death in Africa is due to infection e.g malaria, malnutrition, acute respiratory disease, diamheoea pneumonia etc.
The objectives of child health include the following:
– Reduction of prenatal and early neonatal mortality rate
– Detection of at risk newborns with emphasis on early diagnosis.
– Protection of child from major hazards through immunization, chemoprophylaxes and dietary supplements.
In Nigeria, the infant mortality rate is about 80-110 per 1000.
The infant mortality rate is an important index of child health and it is also an important tool in the measurement of the socio-economic prognoses of a country.
Family planning
This is the third component of family health service. Family planning is a process of encouraging couples to take responsible decision about pregnancy.
The objectives of family planning include the following:
To prevent unwanted pregnancy
To secure desired pregnancy
To limit the size of the family
To space pregnancies
To achieve the desired sex of baby
Family planning promotes the concept of responsible parenthood which encourages couple to have children by choice not by chance. Family planning programmes are designed to promote the reproductive health of women and to meet the needs of women in general.
Family planning pragrammes if they are well implemented reduces maternal mortality and morbidity by
– preventing unwanted pregnancies and high risk pregnancies.
– protecting grand multifarious women who has achieved desired family size from further pregnancies.
– Sexually active teenagers are protected from unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
– Women with serious medical conditions are protected from further pregnancies which may aggravate their conditions.
– promotes child spacing in the interest of the family,
CONCLUSION
Maternal health, child health and family planning programmes aim at reducing the risk of pregnancy and child birth also reduces maternal mortality rate and childhood mortality rate. One of the most important ways of improving the health of women and children is by reducing the number of pregnancies and spacing child birth.
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