The Maternal Health Crisis in America Nursing Implications for Advocacy and Practice

Image of the book cover for 'The Maternal Health Crisis in America'
Author: Barbara Anderson, DrPH, RN, CNM, FACNM, FAAN, Lisa Roberts, DrPH, RN, FNP-BC, FAANP
Affiliation:
Publisher: Springer Publishing Company
Publication Date: 2019
ISBN 10: 0826140726
ISBN 13: 9780826140722
eISBN: 9780826140845
Edition: 1st
Description:
Describes how nursing professionals can mitigate the maternal health crisis through advocacy and improved practice. This graduate-level nursing text and professional clinical reference is the first to comprehensively address the escalating crisis in U.S. maternal health--our country experiences the highest maternal mortality among developed nations--and provides strategies and roadmaps for improved outcomes. It challenges the current approach to ameliorating the maternal crisis, which embeds maternal care into "child health" and "women's health," and characterizes maternal health as a distinct, contemporary epidemiological crisis in America. At its heart, the book calls for the application of nursing knowledge and skill in advocating for and changing practices. The text examines the social determinants responsible for the crisis, including structural and systemic economic and political forces, declining accessibility to maternal care, and lack of a national effort to improve maternal health. With a strong public focus, the book engages readers through narratives and interactive critical thinking exercises in analyzing the problem and related structural and systemic barriers. It offers guidelines for advocacy and improved practice while fostering creative thinking by which readers can imagine their own solutions. Specific issues addressed include the current status of health care delivery, the public health safety net, practice-policy initiatives, specific sociocultural factors contributing to enhanced risk, myths and impugning attitudes about childbearing women, the life-long impact of maternal health neglect, and the contribution of nursing to advocacy, prevention, and improved practice.
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