The Relationship between Children and Mothers

Child Health 

The two social determinants of child health include mother’s social status and access to healthcare services while the physical determinants include the physical environment and location of children and their mothers (Center for Global Development Case Studies, 2018). To start with the effects of mother’s social status within the community on the child health, it is apparent in the case of Yemen that mothers who experience poverty and have low income cannot afford basic healthcare services. This apparently will affect the health of the mother and the health of her child at long-run, leading to a high rate of child mortality. On the other hand, lack of proper access to health services by both the mother and the child will apparently result in the deterioration of their health and might lead to death at the extreme ends. The dirty environments where children and their mothers live might make them be infected with diseases associated with lack of hygiene, and finally, in terms of location, areas that lack adequate roads can delay these mothers and children reaching the hospital thus affecting their healthcare negatively. Therefore, to enhance access to healthcare services by the mothers and their children, it is always important to increase the accessibility of rural areas where they live and ensure that all mothers are educated about the welfare of their children and their health. 

Women and Infants 

I was not actually aware that pregnancy is also a risky time factor for women, but now I am surprised after reading the chapter to have learned that pregnancy and child delivery are life-threatening events especially among the low-income population since mothers in that status will apparently not be able to gain full access to quality prenatal and post-natal services (WHO Global Child Health, 2018). The main factors that account for the differences between the low-income and high-income countries in terms of maternal mortality include equality of obstetric care and availability to intervention or a program like vaccination. The low-income countries found in Africa and the Middle East cannot afford to achieve to factors while the high-income countries found in Europe can afford quality healthcare services and equality in obstetric care thus tremendously reducing infants’ mortality rates. The interventions to reduce high maternal mortality rates include the introduction of prevention/vaccination programs against diseases such as measles. According to the Center for Global development case studies, the cost for approximates the cost of the measles vaccination program to be $26.4 million and the average cost per immunized child is $1.10. This amount of money is often high for low-income countries, thus leading to high infants/maternal mortality rates. 

References 

Center for Global Development Case Studies. (2018). Eliminating measles in Southern Africa . Retrieved at http://www.cgdev.org/page/case-17-eliminating-measles-southern-africa 

Center for Global development case studies. (2018). Reducing child mortality with vitamin A in Nepal . Retrieved at http://www.cgdev.org/page/case-4-reducing-child-mortality-through-vitamin-nepal 

Global Health- Global Immunization. (2018). Measles Vaccination . Retrieved at http://www.cdc.gov/measles/vaccination.html 

WHO Global Child Health. (2018). Maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health . Retrieved at http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/en/