Main description:

The need to improve maternal and child health care may be the most important global health need of the remaining years of the twentieth century. It is central to the World Health Organization's (WHO) goal of Health for All by the Year 2000. The vast majority of births occur in developing countries, where maternity care is often rudimentary. The rates of maternal and infant morbidity and death for these countries are extremely high but much of the morbidity and death is preventable, even with the limited resources available for health care in many parts of the world. The resources devoted to maternal and child care should be greatly expanded, but even the most hopeful projections will leave a wide gap between human needs and available services. WHO estimates that two billion deliveries in the remaining two decades of this century will not be attended by a trained person. At a minimum, it is probable that two million of these women will die in childbirth. There were approximately 130 million births in the world in 1980.

Contents:

Section I: High-Risk Pregnancy.- 1 Childbearing after age 35: Its effect on early perinatal outcomes.- 2 Development of an index of high-risk pregnancy.- 3 Improving obstetric care by training traditional birth attendants, Fortaleza, Brazil.- Section II: Cesarean Delivery.- 4 Cesarean delivery in selected Latin American hospitals.- 5 Deliveries after cesarean birth in two Asian university hospitals.- 6 Management of breech presentations: vaginal or abdominal delivery?.- Section III: Birth Spacing: Determinants and Consequences.- 7 Child survivorship and pregnancy spacing in Iran.- 8 Infant and child survival and contraceptive use in the closed pregnancy interval.- 9 The effect of birth interval on perinatal survival and birth weight.- Section IV: Family Planning Services in the Maternity Hospital.- 10 Desire for additional children and contraceptive plans.- 11 Postpartum sterilization in Sao Paulo State, Brazil.- 12 Access to sterilization in two hospitals in Honduras.