Course Description
Explores the sociocultural, political, economic, and policy implications of maternal and child health worldwide. A comparative approach will cultivate critical assessment of various global strategies and interventions designed to improve the health of women and children, including child survival, safe motherhood initiative, millennium development goals, and sustainable development goals.
Athena Title
Global Maternal Child Health
Prerequisite
GLOB 3100 or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
1. Define the key concepts, terms, and indicators used in assessing global reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and in planning interventions. 2. Identify the unique barriers to health care for women and children with focus on low- and middle-income countries and specific strategies and policies to address them. 3. Describe demographic systems and practices in low- to middle-income countries that result in poor data on maternal and child health. 4. Think critically about the origins, strategies, and effects of various global efforts to improve maternal and child health, including child survival programs, the safe motherhood initiative, the millennium development goals, and the current initiatives in the sustainable development goals. 5. Characterize the role of nutrition in maternal and child health, with an emphasis on the control and prevention of under nutrition, child growth stunting, and micronutrient deficiencies. 6. Articulate the ways in which efforts at health system strengthening, e.g., service delivery, access to care, and health care workforce, have recently been linked to rapid improvements in maternal and child health. 7. Apply cultural, political, and economic theories to understand various policies, approaches, and strategies for improving maternal and child health. 8. Apply a human rights and social justice approach to understand how war, conflict, and disaster impact health among women and children in politically unstable environments.
Topical Outline
--History of International Cooperation in Maternal and Child Health --Levels and Causes of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Mortality and Morbidity --Globalization and Maternal and Child Health --Health System Impacts on Maternal and Child Health --Innovations to Expand Access and Improve Quality of Health Services --Cost-Effectiveness of Interventions for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health
Syllabus