Maternal and Child Health Indicators for Doyle community in Lassen County, California

Introduction

kilometer, there are 111 people. The racial composition was 86% for the white people, 5.5 % Native Americans, 3.1% African- American, 1.4% Asian, 1.8% from other races and 2.2% Pacific Islanders. The number of total births per 300 people in Doyle community is 124 per year while the number of live births for is 112 births. The Doyle maternal mortality stands at 4% for every 100 women, and the infant mortality is 7% for every 100 live births. The Low Birth Weight is 17% infants for every 100 live births and 2% Very Low Birth Weight for every 100 live born. The rate of premature births is 12% according to the statistics (Short, Frank & Conrey, 2012). Majority of women prefer to give birth under the care of a physician, as indicated by the number of women who visit maternity hospitals and birth centers during birth. 82% of the births take place under the care of a physician, 8% under the CNMs, 7% under CMs and 3% under the other types of midwives in homes. The government pays maternity fees for 75% of the total births while the Medicaid pays the 25% of the maternity fees (Short, Frank &Conrey, 2012). There are many policies on the role of midwives to encourage then to attend to many births, and the state offers a number of maternal services such as immunizations, antenatal and postnatal care.

Maternal

during pregnancy, during birth or immediately after birth due to maternal causes. Maternal mortality rate=Number of maternal deaths/number of 100,000 live births in a year. That is MMR =total deaths/100000 live births per year (Zoti, Williams & Wako, 2014). The figures on Maternal Mortality Rate are useful to the health departments of the US to plan on the causes of maternal deaths. and the amount of funding for achieving the low maternal death rates.

(Zoti, Williams &Wako, 2014).

Prematurity is a case of the delivery of neonates that are less than 37 weeks of the gestation period. Premature infants (Zoti, Williams & Wako, 2014). The data on the prematurity rates assists the health planners to

Low Birth Weight (LBW) is the weight of a live infant, which is less than 2500 g regardless of the age of the gestation. The normal weight for a healthy infant is 2500g to 4200g at delivery. LBW can result from preterm birth or the low prenatal growth rate. Other cases are young age, poor nutrition, multiple pregnancies, heart diseases, and drug abuse. The LBW rate is the number of life infants born with low birth weight for every 1000 live births in a year. LBWR =number of low birth weight infants/ 1000 live births in a year (Zoti, Williams & Wako, 2014). The data on LBW helps the health ministry to come up with solutions to the causes of low birth weight infants and teach mothers on the best diets during the pregnancy period.

Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) is the birth weight of an infant, which is less than 1500g. The causes may be due to drug abuse, preterm birth, multiple pregnancies, and poor nutrition. Very Low Birth Weight Rate is the number of infants with less than 1500g for every 1000 births. That is, VLBWR= number of infants less than 1500g/ 1000 live births in a year.VLBW infants (Zoti, Williams & Wako, 2014).

Local Outcome Disparities in Doyle community

ethnic community, married and unmarried mothers, underage, educated, and over age mothers. (Short, Oza, Frank & Conrey, 2012).

Maternal-Child Data for Doyle community Lassen County (US Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Disease Prevention and Health. Health People 2020 Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov.)

Health Measure	Lassen County CA %	Doyle %	National Data %	HP 2020 Baseline %	HP 2020 Goals
Maternal mortality	3.7	4	12.5	12.7 /100000 occurred in 2007	Reduce the rate of mortality
Infant Mortality	4.5	7	10.1	6.7/1000 deaths reported in 2007	Reduce infant mortality
Prematurity	5.4	12	9.5	12.7% premature births in 2007	Reduce the total premature deaths
Low Birth Weight	6.8	10.2	5.6	8.2% low birth weight in 2007	Reduce deaths due to low birth weight
Very Low Birth Weight	4.9	2	4.8	1.5% of very low birth weight in 2007	Reduce cases of very low birth weight

 

Comparison of Doyle Community to the State and the National Data

In Doyle, Lassen County the percentage of the total maternal mortality rate is 4%, which is higher than the state at 3.7% and lower than the national figure at 12.5. Comparing it with the HP2020, the mortality rate in Doyle is lower than the baseline of 12.7% but it is lower than the national figure of 12.5%. The mortality rate in Doyle is quite low when compared to the above statistics, though there is a need to lower it below the state level.

Infant mortality rate in Doyle, Lassen County is at 7%, which is higher than the state or county value at 4.7%, though lower than the national level at a value of 10.1%. The infant mortality rate is higher than the HP20 baseline by 0.3%, which deviates from the HP2020 goal of reducing the rate of infant mortality in the US. In Doyle, the prematurity rate stands at 12%, a value that is higher than both the state and the national figures, which stand at 5.4 and 9.5 respectively. The figure is quite high in comparison to the national and the county values, but is lower than the HP2020 baseline level at 12.7%. The HP2020 of lowering the rate of premature births is achievable, according to the statistics. Achievement of low premature births will ensure that infants grow healthy and do not suffer from childhood ailments, such as respiratory diseases.

The cases of low birth weight in Doyle are very high in comparison to the county and the national statistics, which stands at 6.8% and 5.6% respectively. The Doyle low birth weight rate is 10.2%, which is higher than the HP2020 baseline of 8.2%. The information indicates that the goal of achieving a lower level of prematurity is a bit difficult for the Doyle community. Prematurity can cause health challenges to infants as they grow up since they have low immunity to various kinds of diseases.

In Doyle, the rate of the Very Low Birth Weight is at 2%, which is lower than the state’s value at 4.9% and the national value at 4.8%. The value in Doyle is higher that the HP2020 baseline value of 1.2%, which means the goals of lowering the rate of very low birth rate, was not achievable. Very low birth weight increases the infant mortality rate in Doyle and the nation as a whole.

The analysis table shows a trend in which the rates of, infant mortality, low birth weight, and very low birth weight are higher than the HP2020 baselines and the goals. The aim of the HP 2020 goals is to reduce the mentioned rates, but their values are higher in Doyle compared to the values of the baseline. However, the rates of maternal mortality and the prematurity are lower than the values set on the HP2020 baseline.

(Frioux, Wood, Fakeye, Luan, Localio & Rubin, 2014).

There are a number of programs to aIDress the LBW and the other indicators in Doyle and other states in the US. The programs are Maternal and Child Health Pre improving the National Reporting of the Sunken Infant Syndromes (SIDs), and the Epidemiology Program (Thompson, Black, Esernio-Jennsen, Hardt, Das & Roth, 2012).

Conclusion

References

Frioux, S., Wood, J., Fakeye, O., Luan, X., Localio, R., & Rubin, D. (2014). Longitudinal Association of County-Level Economic Indicators and Child Maltreatment Incidents. Matern Child Health J, 18(9), 2202-2208. doi:10.1007/s10995-014-1469-0

Thompson, E., Thompson, L., Black, E., Esernio-Jenssen, D., Hardt, N., Das, R., & Roth, J. (2012). Identifying Indicators During Pregnancy for Child Maltreatment. Matern Child Health J, 17(10), 1817-1824.

Short, V., Oza-Frank, R., & Conrey, E. (2012). Preconception Health Indicators: A Comparison Between Non-Appalachian and Appalachian Women. Matern Child Health J, 16(S2), 238-249. doi:10.1007/s10995-012-1129-1

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.Healthy People 2020. Washington, DC. Retrieved fromhttp://www.healthypeople.gov

Zotti, M., Williams, A., & Wako, E. (2014). Post-disaster Health Indicators for Pregnant and Postpartum Women and Infants. Matern Child Health J. doi:10.1007/s10995-014-1643-4