Midwifery and Womens Health

Maternal and Perinatal Health

Maternal health problems are the leading cause of stillbirth or infant death within the first week of life. The death of a woman of childbearing age also causes further economic and social difficulties for the family and community. Aside from their health problems, most women in developing countries lack access to modern health care services and scale up deaths from preventable problems. Major determinants of maternal morbidity and mortality include pregnancy, development of pregnancy-related complications, including complications from abortion, and management of pregnancy, delivery, and delivery. Perinatal health is the health of women and babies before, during, and after birth. Pregnant women face a number of health problems including smoking, alcohol consumption during pregnancy, birth defects, infections like cytomegalovirus, maternal diseases that affect pregnancy like diabetes, obesity and hypertension, unnecessary caesarean section and induction of labour, preterm and low birth weight infants Breastfeeding, Neonatal mortality including sleep-related infant deaths Sleep, Shaken Baby Syndrome or Excessive Head Trauma, Perinatal Depression.

Related Societies/ Associations: The Association of Professors of Gynaecology and Obstetrics | The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine | The Society for Academic Specialists in General Obstetrics and Gynaecology | The American Urogynecologic Society