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Abstract
The issue of maternal health remains a concern for a range if countries, where sex-based health disparities are broadly observed within the community, including its health sector. Specifically, in Sub-Saharan Africa, maternal health services remain subpar at best, leaving mothers of infants with multiple health issues, and demonstrating a drastically high maternal death rate. The article by Woldegiorgis et al. (2018) illustrates the necessity to introduce changes into the maternal health setting in the target environment by promoting active education for patients, particularly, young women and especially expecting mothers. Additionally, the focus of healthcare provision must be shifted toward a patient-oriented one, with the quality of care being increased by integrating the available technological solutions. Although the article suffers from the generalization that is inevitable due to the attempt to embrace e a broad range of countries and environments, the general conclusions regarding the disparity within the specified setting and the need for patient education and patient-oriented care are evident.
Introduction
The problem of maternal health has been a global issue for quite some time, with a substantial body of research having neglected the needs of mothers and pregnant women for a while. However, even with the recent changes and improvements in the specified area, namely, the maternal care sector, maternal health concerns remain an evident issue in some areas of the world, Sub-Saharan Africa being one of them (Tessema et al., 2020). Affected significantly by a cultural disparity of the promotion of gender roles and sex-based oppression resulting in a poor focus on maternal health and education of young women and expecting mothers, the issue of maternal; health currently represents a major concern in Sub-Saharan Africa, as a study by Woldegiorgis et al. (2018) confirms. Though the article could introduce a more elaborate approach toward its framework for sample stratification and obtain a more nuanced perspective on each Sub-Saharan region and the associated disparity, the outcomes of the study are essential in informing further changes to be made to the maternity health sector in the target environment.
Critique
The problem selected by Woldegiorgis et al. (2018), namely, the issue of maternal health and the associated concerns, represents a crucial part of the present-day public health management framework. Specifically, studies indicate that, despite the efforts to improve maternal healthcare and patient outcome among young mothers and pregnant women, multiple impediments to providing the healthcare services of proper quality remain an issue (Ahmed et al., 2021). The outlined disparity in healthcare can be ascribed to a range of factors, the main ones being sex-based oppression causing women to be deprived of vital resources for their health, and the, and the economic inequality that leads to a restricted range of options for female-oriented care in Sub-Saharan Africa. In turn, in their introduction, Woldegiorgis et al. (2018) delineate the specified issue explicitly, therefore, creating a clear context for the research and defining the problem to be studied accurately.
Furthermore, the review of the existing studies that the authors provide is brief yet effective. Woldegiorgis et al. (2018) do not limit the scope of their analysis of the papers that have ben published recently, yet they pay due attention to the research outcomes that point to the latest developments in the Sub—0Saharan healthcare context. Thus, Woldegiorgis et al. (2018) both provide the fundamental framework for the further analysis while also setting the stage for their further research.
In turn, the methodology of the research can be described as successfully designed and effectively developed to meet the goals of the research and answer the core questions of the study. Namely, the authors have applied a mixed research method that incorporates the elements of the qualitative and quantitative designs. The latter is represented by the introduction of the instruments defined as the absolute disparity measurements, which serve to evaluate the extent of disparity present in the target setting in the context of maternal care. Namely, Woldegiorgis et al. (2018) incorporate the concepts of rate difference and between group variance as the tools for calculating the levels of disparity within the maternal healthcare environment.
In turn, the qualitative analysis within the study is geared toward defining different types of disparities faced by expecting mothers and mothers of newborn children in the maternal health environment in the Sub-Saharan region. These include the overall (SSA) disparity, the geographic disparity, the economic class disparity, the cluster disparity, and the service disparity (Woldegiorgis et al., 2018). The specified classification of key disparity types has created additional opportunities for an in-depth analysis and a particularly thorough understanding of the nature of the problem. One could argue that the introduction of cultural disparity, namely, belonging to specific cultures and traditions that limit the access to care due to the presence of perceived misconceptions about the quality of care and sex-specific needs of the female population (Daniels et al., 2020). Specifically, the disparities associated with motherhood and the lack of appropriate resources for providing expecting mothers and mother of newborns with the necessary support for the further management of possible health issues and the maintenance of proper health levels. Similarly, the sample size, while not being clearly identified in the study, is implied to be quite high given the broad time period that the research encompasses and the vast range of health disparity types within the target one that it embraces.
Finally, the approach to the data analysis, specifically, the comparison of the distributions with the obtained data, can be considered as a fairly effective method of locating the key connections between the variables. Namely, the correlation and causation between the observed issues and the quality of maternal health, specifically, the differences in the rates of maternal mortality in the Sub-Saharan context, was successfully identified with the help of the specified analytical tool. In turn, the use of the described analytical framework informs the quality of research results and allows making viable assumptions concerning possible interventions to be introduced into the Sun-Saharan African healthcare environment in the nearest future.
To the credit of the authors, the key limitations of the research have also been discussed, with the mentioning of the cluster framework as the one that incorporates both the advantages and disadvantages of the study. Specifically, the authors admitted that obtaining data from all countries within the Sub-Saharan region was impossible, which was why the research was limited to the number of states that were available for the assessment (Woldegiorgis et al., 2018). The specified limitation represents a major constraint in the analysis of key health disparities within the target setting, particularly, in relation to managing the needs of pregnant women and others of infants. In turn, by recognizing the specified limitation and adjusting the study design accordingly, the authors overcame the identified concern. Therefore, key research biases have been successfully avoided and managed. Consequently, the credibility and validity of research results was increased.
Moreover, the study results and their discussion are worth praising for their meticulousness and the critical approach toward information assessment. Namely, the study illustrates the obvious problems in the continuity of the service provision, therefore, outlining the problems associated with nurse-patient communication. The specified outcome informs the further identification of strategies for addressing the identified concerns, particularly, the development of a patient-centered, communication-oriented framework for managing the needs of pregnant women and mothers of infants.
Finally, the recommendations provided by the authors should also eb regarded as critical in addressing the issue on which the research centers. Namely, the emphasis on effective nurse-patient communication is isolated as a critical concern. Furthermore, the need to restructure the current approach toward resource management has been determined as one of the main approaches toward handling the present disparity within the Sub-Saharan healthcare context. However, one could claim that the study fails to address one of the core disparities that represents the foundation for the current problem to exist. Specifically, the sex-based disparities caused by the rigid gender norms within the target setting and the resulting lack of focus on the needs of women, including pregnant women and mothers of infants, should also be regarded as a crucial concern to be managed accordingly (Yaya et al., 2018). In turn, the recommendations featured in the research do not touch upon tenderized disparity specifically, instead, providing a more general overview of the related sociocultural and socioeconomic concerns.
Therefore, it could be advised that the authors of the research introduced additional options for removing sex-based disparities within the healthcare system, particularly, the context of maternal care, in the Sub-Saharan region. The specified addition will allow managing the needs of the target population in a much more effective fashion. Furthermore, the roots of the current problem regarding the mismanagement of pregnant women’s and mothers’ needs will be identified. As a result, the current patriarchal approach to healthcare management within Sub-Saharan Africa will be replaced with a more effective framework that will allow addressing the needs of women as a particularly vulnerable group. With the specified adjustments made, an improvement in the quality of maternal care and a drop in maternal mortality and infant mortality rates is expected.
Conclusion
Despite having an obvious problem with the generalization of the outcomes of the study, which can be blamed on the endeavor to encompass as broad a range of Sub-Sahara African economic and sociocultural contexts as possible, the study manages to provide a definitive statement and offer a viable solution. Specifically, the outcomes of the research point to the presence of social and sex-based disparities within the target setting, with sex-based oppression of women and the rigidity of gender roles being the primary factor in inhibiting their access to proper healthcare. Furthermore, the study provides an in-depth analysis of the issue at hand at different time periods in different areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, thus, proving that the problem of sex-based disparities within the target region has been a major concern for a substantial time period. Therefore, the research provides credible and valuable outcomes that can be used for the further development of strategies based on patient education and promotion of patient-based perspectives within the target setting.
References
Ahmed, T., Rahman, A. E., Amole, T. G., Galadanci, H., Matjila, M., Soma-Pillay, P., Gillespie, B. M., El Arifeen, S. E.,& Anumba, D. O. (2021). The effect of COVID-19 on maternal newborn and child health (MNCH) services in Bangladesh, Nigeria and South Africa: call for a contextualised pandemic response in LMICs.International Journal for Equity in Health, 20(1), 1-6. Web.
Daniels, K. P., Valdez, Z., Chae, D. H., & Allen, A. M. (2020). Direct and vicarious racial discrimination at three life stages and preterm labor: Results from the African American Women’s Heart & Health Study.Maternal and Child Health Journal, 24(11), 1387-1395. Web.
Tessema, Z. T., Yazachew, L., Tesema, G. A., & Teshale, A. B. (2020). Determinants of postnatal care utilization in sub-Saharan Africa: a meta and multilevel analysis of data from 36 sub-Saharan countries. Italian journal of pediatrics, 46(1), 1-11.
Woldegiorgis, M. A., Hiller, J. E., Mekonnen, W., & Bhowmik, J. (2018). Disparities in maternal health services in sub-Saharan Africa. International journal of public health, 63(4), 525-535.
Yaya, S., Uthman, O. A., Amouzou, A., & Bishwajit, G. (2018). Disparities in caesarean section prevalence and determinants across sub-Saharan Africa countries. Global health research and policy, 3(1), 1-9.
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