“Agents of Change” in Maternal and Infant Care: Matronas, Parteras, and Public Health in Bolivia, 1950s–1970s

2021 ◽  
Vol 101 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-656
Author(s):  
Kathryn N. Gallien
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infant Care ◽  
Nursing Schools ◽  
Health It ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Public Health Programs ◽  
Mining Areas ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
Public Health Officials

Abstract In the 1950s and 1960s young women could study to become obstetric midwives (matronas) at two Bolivian universities. After the 1952 Bolivian Revolution, public health officials saw matronas' work in mining areas and rural public health programs as part of the government's effort to assimilate Indigenous Bolivians into a mestizo national culture, by reforming Indigenous mothers and eliminating demand for Andean midwives (parteras). By the 1970s, a military dictatorship had replaced the revolutionary government, and nursing schools had replaced midwifery programs. The last cohort of matronas now found jobs in public health offering trainings to parteras. Based on oral histories of matronas and parteras, this article examines these women's personal experiences with midwifery and public health. It argues that matronas and parteras shaped public maternal and infant care programs and contributed to the persistence of multiple forms of childbirth assistance in Bolivia.

Health

2019 ◽  
pp. 354-362
Author(s):  
Gian Luca Burci
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Tobacco Control ◽  
Health It ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Illicit Trade ◽  
Normative Development ◽  
Control Community ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Regulatory Measures

This chapter provides an overview of the conception, negotiation, and normative development of the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) based on the professional experience of the author, a former Legal Counsel of WHO. The FCTC must be appreciated against the background of the normative role of WHO and its reluctance to use international lawmaking as a tool for global health governance. The FCTC is a groundbreaking instrument for the protection and promotion of public health; it was conceived as a framework convention in order to accommodate diverse regulatory measures at national and international levels and to create a normative space to facilitate progressive agreement on evidence-based interventions. The negotiation of the convention as well as of its Protocol on Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products was influenced by the relative lack of treaty-making experience on the part of public health officials in national delegations and by the uncompromising hostility of the tobacco control community against the tobacco industry. The resulting tension with strong commercial interests linked to tobacco trade led to a number of difficult and sometimes awkward compromises. At the same time, it led to the establishment of a strong institutional framework that has been instrumental in developing the FCTC through the adoption of far-reaching guidelines and the monitoring of compliance. Notwithstanding its success, there has been no serious discussion in WHO on the negotiation of new conventions, and the FCTC may remain an isolated achievement enabled by a unique set of circumstances.

Incongruent Needs

2013 ◽  
pp. 209-221
Author(s):  
Edward J. Cherian ◽  
Tom W. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health It ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Stakeholder Groups ◽  
Iron Triangle ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
United States Healthcare

Health Information Technology (HIT) has the potential to redefine the confines of traditional medicine. Yet, in over a decade, little has been shown in improvements from HIT investments. In order to understand the failures of health IT policy, this chapter examines the diverse priorities of stakeholders in the health system. Using kiviat diagrams as adaptations of the traditional iron-triangle of tradeoffs, the priorities of four stakeholder groups (patients, providers, pharmaceuticals, and payers) are mapped against the priorities of government and public health. The chapter finds that the priorities of these stakeholders within the United States healthcare system are incongruent and in conflict. To better understand the HIT needs of the future, policy makers and public health officials must understand these dichotomous priorities and work to bring them in line.

EVALUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMS1

1964 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-34
Author(s):  
Morton S. Hilbert
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Nuclear Fission ◽  
Health Programs ◽  
Health It ◽  
Mature Adult ◽  
Public Health Programs ◽  
Conditioned Behavior ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
New Methods

“Consciously or subconsciously evaluation is an inseparable part of human life and one of the characteristics that distinguishes the behavior of the cerebrating homosapiens from the insect-guided, reflex-conditioned behavior of the lower forms of animal life. Objective, critical, self-evaluation is said to be a hallmark of the emotionally mature adult. Evaluation is not new in public health. It predates Lemuel Shattuck's report and probably also predates Biblical references to public health. One cannot plan or administer public health programs properly without evaluating them. Although evaluation is not new, methods and tools of measurement change as do attitudes toward and emphasis on evaluation. Thus it is timely in an age when we can measure the energy released by synthetic nuclear fission to renew our efforts at measuring the accomplishments of our public health programs.” –Editorial: Am. J. Public Health, 45:1480. 1955.

Does Social Security Support for Medical Care Weaken Public Health Programs?

1976 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milton I. Roemer ◽  
Nobuo Maeda
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Health It ◽  
Positive Direction ◽  
Public Health Programs ◽  
Social Security Programs ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Latin American Countries

Social security programs for medical care in Latin American countries have long been regarded as rivals to the Ministries of Health. Although they typically cover only a small fraction of the population theoretically served by the Ministries, they often have larger health budgets; on a per beneficiary basis, their expenditures are invariably much higher. Analysis of the relative strengths of social security programs (percentage of economically active persons covered and national per capita outlays), in twelve Latin American countries, however, shows them to have no correlation (virtually zero) to the strengths of Ministries of Health (percentage of national budgets devoted to public health). It appears that both social security and Ministry of Health expenditures correlate in a strongly positive direction with a country's per capita gross domestic product. There is no evidence that stronger social security programs are associated with weaker Ministries of Health.

Risk Attitudes and Behavior Among Norwegian Adolescents

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilde Iversen ◽  
Torbjørn Rundmo ◽  
Hroar Klempe
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Behavior Modification ◽  
Health Programs ◽  
Risk Attitudes ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Public Health Programs ◽  
The Core ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

Abstract. The core aim of the present study is to compare the effects of a safety campaign and a behavior modification program on traffic safety. As is the case in community-based health promotion, the present study's approach of the attitude campaign was based on active participation of the group of recipients. One of the reasons why many attitude campaigns conducted previously have failed may be that they have been society-based public health programs. Both the interventions were carried out simultaneously among students aged 18-19 years in two Norwegian high schools (n = 342). At the first high school the intervention was behavior modification, at the second school a community-based attitude campaign was carried out. Baseline and posttest data on attitudes toward traffic safety and self-reported risk behavior were collected. The results showed that there was a significant total effect of the interventions although the effect depended on the type of intervention. There were significant differences in attitude and behavior only in the sample where the attitude campaign was carried out and no significant changes were found in the group of recipients of behavior modification.

Perspectives on Prevention: A Dialogue Between Public Health Officials and Community Psychologists

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven B. Pokorny ◽  
Peter Y. Ji ◽  
Jospeh L. Sherk ◽  
P. Jacob Rebus ◽  
Olga Rabin-Belyaev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Health Officials

Dealing with COVID-19: lessons learned from the Italian experience

Coronaviruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvana Mirella Aliberti ◽  
Francesco De Caro ◽  
Giovanni Boccia ◽  
Rosario Caruso ◽  
Mario Capunzo
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Coherent System ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Italian Experience ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Future Plans

: Italy was the first western nation affected by the pandemic and was observed as a pilot case in the management of the new coronavirus epidemic. The outbreak of COVID-19 disease has been very difficult in Italy, on June 25, 2020 there are 239,821 total cases of which 33,592 deaths nationwide. Three lessons emerged from this experience that can serve as a blueprint to improve future plans for the outbreak of viruses. First, early reports on the spread of COVID-19 can help inform public health officials and medical practitioners in effort to combat its progression; second, inadequate risk assessment related to the urgency of the situation and limited reporting to the virus has led the rapid spread of COVID-19; third, an effective response to the virus had to be undertaken with coherent system of actions and simultaneously.

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