Women's Health Care Practices Research Articles

Women's wellness in the mountains: An exploration of medicinal plants among tibeto-burman groups in Thailand

Ethnopharmacological relevanceThis study offers valuable insight into the traditional healing practices of women's healthcare within four Tibeto-Burman groups. By focusing on women's wellness, the research sheds light on the often-neglected yet significant contributions made by women in the field of traditional medicine. Aims of the studyThe study seeks to address the gap of studies on the ethnobotany of women healthcare of the Tibeto-Burman groups in Thailand and to analyst the factors that could affect the diversity of ethnobotanical knowledge. Materials and methodsThe study compiled data from 15 group-informants residing in 12 different villages. The information gathering process involved a combination of free-listing, semi-structured interviews, group discussion, and the walk-to-the-wood method. To analyze the data, the researchers used various methods such as use-reports, Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC), Relative Importance Index (RI), and Cluster analysis. ResultsThis study identified 200 plant species used in traditional women's healthcare practices, with leaves being the most frequently used part. Drinking was the most common method for internal use, while bathing and steam were the most emphasized for external use. Blumea balsamifera and Buddleja asiatica had high RI and RFC. Cluster analysis revealed that group-informants were divided by ethnicity and geographical location. ConclusionThis study contributes to the understanding of traditional healthcare practices among Tibeto-Burman groups in Thailand, with a particular focus on women's wellness. The results provide insight into the ethnobotanical knowledge of these communities and highlight the important role played by women in traditional medicine. The study underscores the need for continued research in this field to preserve and utilize this valuable knowledge.

Profile and spatial distribution on maternal mortality

Abstract Objectives: to describe profile and spatial distribution on maternal mortality in a city in the North of Minas Gerais-Brazil. Methods: a descriptive, cross-sectional, documentary and quantitative study was carried out in 31 (100%) Fichas de Investigação de Óbito Materno do Comitê de Mortalidade Materna (Maternal Mortality Investigation Data Forms from the Maternal Mortality Committee) from 2009 to 2013. Results: prevalence is observed in women between 20 and 34 years old, mixed race, single and with low schooling. Of the deaths classified, 48.2% are direct obstetric death and 74.2% would be likely avoidable. The most prevalent causes of death were pregnancy-specific hypertensive disease; circulatory system disease; neoplasms; coagulopathies and post-abortion infection. In relation to prenatal care, only 20 women performed it, and most performed less than six prenatal consultations and in relation to the end of gestation, 68.1% underwent cesarean childbirth. Regarding to the descriptive spatial analysis, we identified a higher occurrence of maternal deaths in the areas of medium and high social vulnerability. Conclusions: maternal mortality is a strong indicator of women's healthcare, there is a necessity to readjust women’s healthcare in the puerperal pregnancy cycle. New healthcare practices for women are needed, due to the referred bond and responsible care.

Paving the road for a European postgraduate training curriculum

The ‘Project for Achieving Consensus in Training’ has been initiated by the European Board & College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology to harmonise training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology throughout Europe. In this project called the EBCOG-PACT, a state of the art pan-European training curriculum will be developed.Implementation of a pan-European curriculum will enhance harmonisation of both quality standards of women's healthcare practice and standards of postgraduate training. Secondly, it will assure equal quality of training of gynaecologists, promoting mobility throughout Europe. Thirdly, it will enhance cooperation and exchange of best practices between medical specialists and hospitals within Europe.The project is expecting to deliver (1) a description of the core and electives of the curriculum based on previously defined standards of care, (2) a societally responsive competency framework based on input from societal stakeholders and (3) strategies for education and assessment based on the current literature. Also, the project focuses on implementation and sustainability of the curriculum by delivering (4) a SWOT-analysis for the implementation based on insights into transcultural differences, (5) recommendations for implementation, change management and sustainability based on the SWOT analysis (6) and finally a handbook for other specialties initiating European curriculum development.The development and the implementation of this modern pan-European curriculum in Obstetrics and Gynaecology aims to serve as an example for the harmonisation of postgraduate training in Europe.

Changes in the Practice of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

A projected shortage of obstetrician-gynecologists (OB-GYNs) is a result of both the increasing US population and the relatively static number of residency graduates. In addition, generational changes have contributed to increasing subspecialization, more desiring part-time employment, and earlier retirement. This article reviews data regarding changes in the practice of obstetrics and gynecology. Residency education is focusing more on a core curriculum in general obstetrics and gynecology, while subspecialty fellowship training has grown in popularity. There are no recent data to describe whether OB-GYNs are working fewer hours, yet more are employed in larger practices at mostly metropolitan locations. A team-based care model that incorporates nonphysician clinicians and digital conversion of clinical data has been encouraged to increase accessibility, improve comprehensiveness, commit to more continuity of care, and reduce redundancy. Compared with other medical specialists, OB-GYNs retire slightly earlier, especially females who will represent the field more. The specialty is moving toward a more comprehensive women's health care practice model that is more patient-centered, efficient, cost controlling, team-based, and adaptable to the needs of a diverse population. Implications from these changes for our practices and improving patient care are currently unclear and await more reported experience.

Study of some Medicinal plants used in Women Health-Care Practices by Meitei Community of Manipur

In the present Investigation an attempt has been made to study the women health care practices of Meitei Community of Manipur. A detailed survey was conducted at different sites of all the districts of Manipur State. A total of 36 medicinal plants belonging to 26 families are recorded which are used in different healthcare practices. In the present investigation some of the common diseases were found to be irregular menstruation, abortion, postnatal complicacies, gonorrhoea, leucorrhoea, lactation etc. In the present work information including medicinal uses, preparation, composition, doses etc. were recorded. It was also reported that due urbanization and semi modernization people their traditional knowledge and culture will be lost forever. Therefore, it urgently needs to document of their indigenous knowledge for the welfare of humankind at large. Phytochemical and Pharmacognistic study of less known ethno-medicinal plants will help to discover new drugs for the benefit of mankind at large.

Committee Opinion No. 558

Given demonstrated vaccine efficacy, safety, and the large potential for prevention of many infectious diseases among adults, newborns, and pregnant women, obstetrician-gynecologists should embrace immunizations as an integral part of their women's health care practice. To provide direct examples, evidence-based recommendations for three commonly administered immunizations by practicing obstetrician-gynecologists are discussed: 1) human papillomavirus vaccine, 2) influenza vaccine, and 3) tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid and acellular pertussis vaccine.

Ancient Egyptian Women's Health Care in Relation to Modern Women's Health Care Practices: An Overview

Ancient Egyptian Women's Health Care in Relation to Modern Women's Health Care Practices: An Overview

Keeping healthy! Whose responsibility is it anyway? Vietnamese Canadian women and their healthcare providers’ perspectives

Understanding how healthcare responsibility is distributed will give insight on how health-care is delivered and how members of a society are expected to practice health-care. The raising cost of health-care has resulted in restructuring of the existing Canadian healthcare system toward a system that controls costs by placing more healthcare responsibility on the individual. This shift might create more difficulty for immigrants and refugees to obtain equitable health-care and put blame on them when they experience illness. This paper is drawn from the results of a larger qualitative study exploring Vietnamese Canadian women's breast cancer and cervical cancer screening practices. Interview data were gathered from 15 Vietnamese Canadian women and six healthcare providers. We will demonstrate that (a) despite the strong influence of individualism, Vietnamese women and their healthcare providers value both individual liberty and the interrelationship between individual and society; (b) limited funding and unequal distribution of healthcare resources impacted how immigrant and refugee women practice health-care. Thus, motivating and fostering immigrant and refugee women's healthcare practice require both individual and institutional effort. To foster immigrant and refugees' healthcare practices, healthcare policy makers and providers need to consider how to distribute healthcare resources that meet immigrants' and refugees' healthcare needs in the most equitable way.

Living “In-between”—Vietnamese Canadian Women's Experiences: Implications for Health Care Practice

Intercultural living—a living that dwells “in-between” spaces of cultures—how it is conceptualized and what its lived experiences might mean, can give the direction for how we ought to care for one another. Drawing from my research with Vietnamese Canadian women, I argue that many immigrant women live and practice health care in “in-between” spaces, spaces that belong neither to East nor to West. Thus, supporting immigrant women's health care practices requires the removal of social ideologies that set apart the West and the “Other.” To provide equal and quality health care, caring should occur within in-between spaces, spaces that belong to both those who provide and those who receive health care services.

Domestic Violence Against 116 Turkish Housewives: A Field Study

ABSTRACT In order to clarify the factors associated with domestic violence against married women and to learn the attitude of women toward violence and toward the inquiry of health personnel about domestic violence, a cross-sectional survey was conducted on 116 married Turkish women. The prevalence of domestic physical violence was found to be 41.4%, emotional violence 25.9%, sexual violence 8.6%, and controlling behavior 77.6%. Physical violence experienced at any time in their life was 50.9%. Rate of physical violence was found related with lower formal education of both women and husbands and their place of birth. The opinion of “husbands must not beat their wives” was more common among women with formal education. Eighty-two percent of women indicated that they would be willing to answer questions regarding domestic violence by health personnel. In conclusion, cultural background and formal education of either woman or man influence the likelihood of imposing or tolerating violent behavior at home. Inquiry about violence may be a routine in women's health care practice, and it is welcome by most women.

Women's health, women's health care: complicating experience, language and ideologies

AbstractIncreasingly, research in women's health and healthcare foregrounds women's experience. Despite the contribution that explorations of women's ‘lived life’ makes to our understandings, the concern of these feminist authors is the absence of in‐depth analysis of the complexity of experience and the contexts in which women's experiences of health are constituted. In this paper, authors extend current understandings of the lived life by complicating notions of knowledge, experience, language and ideologies. These ideas challenge taken‐for‐granted assumptions that underlie current women's healthcare practices, disrupting the reinscription of patriarchal ideologies and generating new possibilities for nursing practice.

Putting chronic illness ‘in place’. Women immigrants' accounts of their health care

This paper discusses the ways in which first generation Canadian women of Vancouver's Chinese and South Asian communities manage their chronic illness. The study reported was concerned with the women's experiences of health care encounters in hospitals and clinics, and their subsequent incorporation or modification of biomedical knowledge as they managed the day-to-day consequences of their illness. The paper presents a critique of culturalist explanations of personal health care practices, through an ethnographic account of the women's institutional and occupational emplacement and their racialized experience of place. In the study women's accounts of their illness and its management indicated a search for the alleviation of symptoms that involved a plurality of illness management strategies. The women's health care practices were mediated by local social networks and a distribution of non-medical resources rooted in the process of ‘place’, in addition to specific barriers to the use of biomedical techniques. The study suggests that inquiry into problems of health care for minority population groups needs to go beyond a narrow focus on biomedical services, and analysis must be wary of attributing primacy to untheorized concepts of culture, ethnicity or ‘race’ in explanation.

Women's Health Care Practice and Research Network

Women's Health Care Practice and Research Network

Health Care in China

Maternal-child nurses are part of a growing number of Americans who have had the opportunity to visit China. An increased understanding of the history and of the health care practices of the Chinese people lends itself to an examination of American values and health practices. The insight developed may aid us as we seek to understand our own health care practices for women and children and to plan for the future in health care.