Epigenetics, the Environment, and Children's Health Across Lifespans
This stimulating volume addresses vital questions about gene/environment interactions as they affect cell health from the prenatal period through later life. Beginning with a tour of epigenetic processes in the human body, the book assembles current theoretical and empirical developments across the discipline, among them transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, the effects of maternal nutrition on epigenetic change, and possible links between epigenetics and childhood obesity. Public health and policy aspects of the field are discussed in depth, with the understanding that much can be done to improve our epigenetic health as a species. And in this vein, contributors consider future possibilities, such as the reprogramming of genes to reverse cancer and other diseases. Included in the coverage: The role of environmental epigenetics in perinatal and neonatal development The epigenetic biomarker γH2AX: from bench science to clinical trials What's the risk? Dental amalgam, mercury exposure, and human health risks throughout the lifespan Post-traumatic stress disorder: neurological, genetic, and epigenetic bases Children's exposure to alcohol, tobacco, and drugs: long-term outcomes Ethical implications of epigenetics Epigenetics, the Environment, and Children's Health Across Lifespans brings real-world knowledge and applications of this increasingly important field to public health practitioners, maternal and child health researchers, and environmental health experts.
Global Child Health a toolkit to address health disparities
This timely resource brings child health to the forefront of global health and the crucial goal of universal equity of care. Its resource-based framework offers contemporary perspective on factors driving child health disparities, specific vulnerabilities of underserved children, and ways readers can become effective advocates for children. The book critiques current child health policy worldwide, examining both policies that are helping to alleviate and are contributing to further inequities. And the authors provide an extensive toolkit to aid professionals in multidimensional screening for child, newborn, maternal, and post-natal health as well as socioeconomic determinants of health. Included in the coverage: · What is global health? · The current state of global child health and disparities · Global health disparities in high-resource settings · Pathologies disproportionally affecting the underserved · Policy and advocacy framework · Navigating the domestic resources (an advocate's well child check) Global Child Health will find a ready audience among child health providers (physicians, advanced practice providers, nursing staff, social workers, allied healthcare providers, public health professionals), medical educators (medical schools, departments of pediatrics, schools of public health, nursing schools and programs, schools of allied health), and child health policymakers (staff at USAID, Health and Human Services, health services researchers in child and global health policy, health advocacy-related nonprofit organizations).
Handbook for conducting an adolescent health services barriers assessment (AHSBA) with a focus on disadvantaged adolescents
A first step towards achieving universal health coverage for adolescents is for each country to assess which adolescent subpopulations do not have effective health service coverage and what the most important barriers are that prevent them from having it. This handbook for conducting an adolescent health services barriers assessment (AHSBA) with a focus on disadvantaged adolescents outlines how governments can assess health service equity and barriers at national and subnational levels in order to identify which adolescents are being left behind, and why.
Motherhood in the Face of Trauma: pathways towards healing and growth
This volume offers an overview of the latest research on perinatal adaptation among women who have faced trauma, loss and/or adversity, both in childhood and/or as an adult, and describes the varied trajectories of adaptive and maladaptive coping that follow. The range of outcomes considered span from health-limiting (e.g. mental illness, substance use, unhealthy life style behaviours) to health-promoting (e.g. resilience and posttraumatic growth). These outcomes are examined both in relation to mothers' experience of motherhood and parenting, and with regard to their children's lives. Interpersonal trauma, experienced in childhood and/or or adulthood, can have a profound effect on how women experience the transition into motherhood - from pregnancy, to childbirth, and postpartum caregiving. Women across the globe are exposed to high rates of interpersonal violence, and face the physical and emotional consequences of such events. The shift into motherhood is an emotionally evocative period in a woman's life, entailing not only challenges, but also the potential for healing and growth. Individual chapters will present state-of-the-art research, and will also highlight the voices of women who have personally experienced trauma, illustrating the effects on their experiences as mothers. Throughout the book, the consistent emphasis is on clinical implications and on ways that providers can create a context for healing and growth with the help of current evidence-based and promising treatment methods.
Moving Life Course Theory into Action: making change happen
Over the past decade, practitioners in the field of maternal and child health have gained a general understanding of Life Course Theory and its potential application to practice. This book focuses on moving Life Course Theory into action, filling a need for practitioners across a variety of fields to maximize the opportunities this model offers. Moving Life Course Theory Into Action is designed to fit into the busy lives of practitioners. With new ideas and strategies delivered in a compact handbook style format, each chapter includes key points that offer a quick summary of the main lessons. Topics range from a description of the theory and its equity and historic foundations to applications in housing, incarceration and home visiting along with methods for aligning communications, planning, policy, collaboration, evaluation, funding and leadership to support this new perspective.
Obstacle Course: the everyday struggle to get an abortion in America
It seems unthinkable that citizens of one of the most powerful nations in the world must risk their lives and livelihoods in the search for access to necessary health care. And yet it is no surprise that in many places throughout the United States, getting an abortion can be a monumental challenge. Anti-choice politicians and activists have worked tirelessly to impose needless restrictions on this straightforward medical procedure that, at best, delay it and, at worst, create medical risks and deny women their constitutionally protected right to choose. Obstacle Course tells the story of abortion in America, capturing a disturbing reality of insurmountable barriers people face when trying to exercise their legal rights to medical services. Authors David S. Cohen and Carole Joffe lay bare the often arduous and unnecessarily burdensome process of terminating a pregnancy: the sabotaged decision-making, clinics in remote locations, insurance bans, harassing protesters, forced ultrasounds and dishonest medical information, arbitrary waiting periods, and unjustified procedure limitations. Based on patients' stories as well as interviews with abortion providers and allies from every state in the country, Obstacle Course reveals the unstoppable determination required of women in the pursuit of reproductive autonomy as well as the incredible commitment of abortion providers. Without the efforts of an unheralded army of medical professionals, clinic administrators, counselors, activists, and volunteers, what is a legal right would be meaningless for the almost one million people per year who get abortions. There is a better way--treating abortion like any other form of health care--but the United States is a long way from that ideal.
Preterm Birth in the United States: a sociocultural approach
This first-of-its-kind volume addresses the myriad of issues relating to--and reviews the plethora of responses to--premature births in the United States, both in national context and compared with other countries. In addition to current clinical data, it examines how preterm births in the U.S. fit in with larger social concerns regarding poverty, racial disparities, reproductive rights, gender expectations, and the business of health care. Comparisons with preterm birth phenomena in Canada, the U.K., and other Western European countries illustrate cultural narratives about motherhood, women's status, differences across social welfare and abortion policies , and across health care financing and delivery sytems, and how these may affect outcomes for newborns. The book sorts out these intersecting complexities through the following critical lenses: · Clinical: causes, treatments, and outcomes of preterm birth · Population: the distribution of preterm births · Cultural: how we understand preterm birth · Health care: delivering care for high-risk pregnant women and preterm infants · Ethical: moral decision-making about preterm births Preterm Birth in the United States synthesizes a wide knowledge base for maternal and child health professionals across diverse disciplines, including public health, social work, nursing, medicine, and health policy. Social scientists with interests in reproduction and gender issues will gain access to historical, clinical and epidemiological knowledge that can support their work. There is also an audience for the book among childbirth activists such as supporters of midwifery and less medicalized childbirth.
Reimagining Global Abortion Politics: a social justice perspective
What are the contemporary issues in abortion politics globally? What factors explain variations in access to abortion between and within different countries? This text provides a transnationally-focused, interdisciplinary analysis of trends in abortion politics using case studies from around the Global North and South. It considers how societal influences, such as religion, nationalism and culture, impact abortion law and access. It explores the impact of international human rights norms, the increasing displacement of people due to conflict and crisis and the role of activists on law reform and access. The book concludes by considering the future of abortion politics through the more holistic lens of reproductive justice. Utilising a unique interdisciplinary approach, this book provides a major contribution to the knowledge base on abortion politics globally. It provides an accessible, informative and engaging text for academics, policy makers and readers interested in abortion politics.
Whose Choice Is It?: abortion, medicine, and the law
Whose Choice Is It? covers everything about abortion, including the key question-should a woman be allowed to choose whether to continue her pregnancy or should a legislature make that choice for her? Some of the world's foremost experts address past, present, and future abortion practices from legal, medical, political, and moral perspectives. When human life begins is addressed. Women's access to abortion and contraception throughout history is explained. Dr. Rebecca Gomperts-the world's leading deliverer of abortion care in restrictive countries-relates her experiences, and there is much, much more. Whose Choice Is It? will be a tremendous resource everywhere, whatever the fate of the Roe and Doe decisions in the United States. Book jacket.