Earlier this week, The world press photo of the year was released, and announced Jodi Bieber as the 1st place photographer. The winning photo is of a young Afghanistan girl. Aisha was found by US militants after she was punished and left by her husband for trying to escape the abusive marriage. She was 18 at the time of the incident. She has received reconstructive surgery on her face and ears in America and now seeks refuge there.The photograph is a sharp reminder, of the inequalities that still exist globally today. This week, the topic of discussion in class is “Culture and Health”, relating it our on going theme, and the photograph of the year, we decided to investigate women’s rights, and the access to health care in Afghanistan. 

“For nearly 20 years, armed conflict and violations of international human rights have devastated the health and well being of Afghan people”(Rasekh et al. 1998).
Now over a decade later, despite international effort, the situation still remains grim (Globe and Mail, 2010).  In 2001, despite the efforts, and  attempts of international organizations and governments to improve the situation in Afghanistan, conditions have not improved-- largely due to the fact there is no international consensus on how to ‘rebuild’ Afghanistan (Behind the veil: C6). Moreover, with such a unstable political situation, there are several indicators that these have been some of the hardest and brutal years Afghans have faced in the last three decades, especially the women (Globe and Mail, 2010). 

Outside of the city centers, access to healthcare is minimal. Distances are vast, and very little infrastructure is established. Woman have to walk immeasurable distances just to receive basic healthcare treatments (Amowitz et al. 2002).  In a study conducted in (2002) by Amowitz et al. 92% of the maternal deaths occurred in the rural areas. This is coupled with the situation, that treatment is not even guaranteed, as fear and political regimes have seriously impacted women’s ability to received healthcare. 

Today, women still struggle with access to basic rights, the Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail has an excellent multimedia feature: “Behind The Veil” on their website that investigates the current situation in Afghanistan, this is website describes the hope, fears, dreams, and hardship, these women face you can access it on this link:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/behind-the-veil/

In addition, here is a short clip that also highlights the struggle on receiving medical care and child birth. 

Sources:

Amowitz L.L, Reis C & Iacopino(2002) Maternal mortality in herat province, afghanistan, 2002: an indicator of women’s rights. Journal of American Medical Association. 288(10): 1284-1291

Rasekh Z, Bauer H.M,Manos M, Lacopino V (1998) Womens health and human rights in  afghanistan. Journal of American Medical Association. 280(5): 449-455

Make women’s rights canada’s postwar priority. The Globe and Mail 28 Sept 2010. Retrieved from: 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/make-womens-rights-canadas-postwar-priority/article1914819/

Sex education for the masses?

VICKI:

MTV’s TV Program, “16 and Pregnant,” is a documentary of the lives of 6 teenage girls attending high schools in the United States who go through their 2^nd and 3^rd trimester while being pregnant. It is a daily struggle for them to attend classes with the overwhelming pressure and influence of their peers, let alone with a baby  too. This blog describes the battle for these women, and the lack of awareness for safe sex. When dealing with the issue of women’s health, we see how crucially important it is to take care of our bodies, have safe hygiene, and practice safe sex, to name a few. With the United States being so conservative to the point that talking about sex in health class is practically taboo, we see the results that this can have on young girls throughout the whole country.

The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world, yet with proper awareness of sexual education in schools, such high statistics could further be prevented. Unintentional pregnancy prevention measures can be implemented by providing better sexual education to public schools, both to males and females, as well as giving better advice about the use of contraceptives. The World Health Organization has worked at establishing effective ways to help in the decline of birth rates all over the United States of young, unmarried, teenage females. As the population is expected to reach 7 billion people this year, according to an article in the National Geographic, we can note that women play the leading role in birth rate, thus leading to the major increase in population growth. Birth rate is the root of nearly everything these days, as it affects the amount of resources we have, the amount we use, and the amount we will thus still need. The National Geographic brought up the concern that there could soon be a shortage of resources if methods of population prevention are not demonstrated or implemented soon.  As this is such an important topic for women’s health, it is up to each individual to properly aware themselves of the effects that unsafe sex can have. This TV series depicts the lives of these girls as perfect examples of what the results could be from just one foolish action that could change everything.

*hardly any literature on it

ANNE:

I am taking a more critical stance on MTV’s “16 and Pregnant and the Teenage Mom” series (16&P and TM). While the show does not glorify entering parenthood in your teens, The episode I watched focused more on the tensions between the young teenage parents love life, then it did on the child...(?)  Do these reality TV series normalize teen pregnancies? Does it invite other teenagers to join the young parenthood club?.  In 2008, 434, 758 young women between the ages of 15-19, became teenage mothers, make the live birthrate 41.5/1000¹. Given that countries like the USA, & Great Britain, are facing an extraordinarily high teen pregnancies rates is it appropriate to media-tize teen pregnancies through a reality T.V show? I find it troubling that the media is dramatizing teen pregnancy for someone else’s Wednesday night entertainment. Furthermore, I am still not convinced if MTV is trying to make money off teenage pregnancies, or provide sex education for the masses. While there is increased advocacy for better sexual education, the public health implications of these type of reality series are not clear.

Similarly, I found it shocking that it was difficult to find critical reviews of the television series. In fact, the only accessible article I found on critiquing the show, was one from Fox News, for creditability it is probably better not to mention this. Originally I thought it would be easy to find critical review articles, but they just simply are not available on the internet.

¹  Statistics from:  Center of Disease Control USA (2008): retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/teenbrth.htm

Check it out yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12MrdhGohk8

1900-2011 Women’s health: Trends and Changes.

To start our blog: we think it is important to examine the history of women’s and public health through the last 85 years. So our first post will be on that... We have chosen to concentrate on the last century, because, this firstly it has had the most effect on our modern public health, over these years there has been exciting progession in women’s issues: gender, societial, economic,political, the health and well being of women have all been critically questioned during these years. In this small frame of time, women in the western world, challenged their traditional roles as wives and mothers, fought immensely for the right and the roles of their bodies in society.

The earliest turning event in public health and womens rights can be seen during the Great War. During this time, war-torn countries were powerfully affected powerfully by many epidemics, in which this influence exceeded the amount of deaths as a direct result of the war. Many women served as nurses and worked in hospitals both in the US, as well as overseas, as physical and occupational therapists, namely “Reconstruction Aides.” These aides assisted in the prevention of further disease developments, as well as treating the previously diagnosed ones. In comparison to the literature, this was an important example as to how medicine differed from public health. During the last two years of the war, the greatest disaster of all took place. The influenza pandemic arose, causing between 50-100 million casualties worldwide (1918-1919). Researchers note that this was caused from superadded bacterial infections - which although it was beyond the nurse’s healing capabilities, it brought light to medical attention and major improvements in public health. The important roles of the women who served as nurses in the Navy and Marine Corps helped the expansion of public health by their services in which they later received decorations for.

During the Second World War, just like the First World War. Women donated countless hours and drastically put forth efforts to change the stigmatized health care during this time. Although there were several millions of fatalities during the war (more civilians than soldiers even), we can see both positive and negative contributions that ultimately both led to further developments in public health. For example, many negative factors deal with the spread of diseases from one continent to the other, which led to several illnesses and major diseases among the civilians residing in those areas.  This coerced scientists to research the different causes and seek prevention methods which are still being used today. The rapid advancement of science and technology eventually led to the discovery of these treatments, saving millions of lives. Since public health relates to prevention, we can see that these treatments further led to health promotion During this time Women challenged their role in the medical field, where traditionally, men were physicians, and women contributed in a more subordinate role, such as nurses, and care takers (Enrenriech. 2010). Without these opportunities it is hard to say when times would have improved for women had it not been for the war.

The women’s role in the war was not forgotten, when the soldiers returned home. Women were hesitant to return to the  “pre-war” lifestyle. Over the next few decades there were several uprisings in the feminist and civil rights movement. Campaigns on female-centric issues such as abortion rights, maternity leave, equal pay, and domestic violence, all played a major role in developing programs public support systems available to women.
During this time, global health took an international interest, which lead to the formation of the The United Nations, also leading to several programs and organizations, such as the WHO, UNICEF, and UNESCO. Today, these organization have played a major role in developing programs, that deliver health care and other initiatives to communities globally.
On a smaller scale Individual events have played a key role in defining women’s health throughout the last century. These cases studies are essential, as they have challenged women’s social and economical roles throughout the last century, at the same time critically examining the role of public health. Additionally, these cases challenge societies perspective on women’s health. These past event that have addressed key disputes, allowing public health to become more accessible system for women. Similarly, this has allowed women to create a support system that provides the proper resources and support in women’s health.

For example: In the early twentieth century, two women: Mary Mallon and Jennie Barmore, endured serious public scrutiny, because they both tested positive for typhoid, the women worked in the food industry, they were considered more dangerous to the public then men who tested positive for typhoid, because “cooking was a traditional and necessary activity for women”(Leavitt. 1999) This example addresses the cultural expectations of women during this time period, but also sheds light on the inequality and personal struggles women have faced in the past, and many still face today. In (2003) Stoller wrote an article that addressed the lack of medical care for women prisoners, in three different prisons throughout the United States. From this article it is obvious that women struggle to recieve the proper medical services and needs from the prison. This example is intertwined with ethical and medical issues,  providing health care to prisoners, but in our “modern society” should health care not provide services to all individuals, regardless from their economic or societal position?

Although we have come along way since the beginning of the 1900’s, there is still many aspects of women's health that have not been addressed on both a grass-roots and global level. Over the next few months we will explore these issues in more depth!


Best,
Anne and Vicki



Sources:
Enrenriech B. (2010) Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A history of women healers. 2nd ed. New York: the feminist press.
Leavitt Walzer J. (Ed.). (1999) Women and Health in America. 2nd ed. Madison: The university press.
Morgan S. (2002). Into our own Hands: The women’s health movement in the united states 1969-1990. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
Stoller N. (2003) Space, place and movements as aspects of health care n three women’s prisions. Social Science and Medicine 56: 2263-2275.
Rosen G. (1958). A history of public health. New York: MD Publications

WELCOME!

Hello!


As part of an assignment for our International Public Health Class at AUC, Amsterdam, we are asked to keep a blog on an issue that effects public health.

Our blog will address some major topics of discussion in Women's Health that we find important to bring up throughout the next several weeks. As the weeks progress we hope to explore and provide understanding on important issues in Women’s Health, and integrating these issues into the field public health. We want to examine these issues from a cultural, social, political, and scientific viewpoints. Additionally, we hope to provide insight on how women’s health integrates with public health, and how past, and present events have lead researchers, communities, and individuals to develop solutions to problems through means of preventative measures. Women actions have lead to unique discoveries in this field, which we will elaborate on in subsequent blogs. We will aim to point out key issues that will help us to develop a more concrete understanding of how to establish further possible solutions in the health promotion direction. Hopefully, this blog will provide information through case studies, interviews, articles, and research! We hope you enjoy our blog! 


Anne and Vicki