Kayla Chee – Global Reproductive Health at Duke

Pelvic Health Physical Therapy

June 12, 2019June 12, 2019 by Kayla Chee1 Comment

Part 3: Mama, LLC In Part 2 of this Pelvic Health Physical Therapy, we were introduced to Dr. Laura Keyser, a physical therapist who specializes in maternal and child health. She also is the co-founder of Mama, LLC. Dr. Keyser was able to share some aspects of her work at Mama, LLC and to inform us of some projects the firm is working on. Mama, LLC is a physical therapy and public health consulting firm that specializes in domestic and international women’s and girl’s health. Mama, LLC partners with humanitarian organizations, professional organizations, educational institutions, and for-profit groups to meet maternal and women’s health needs around the world. The firm’s work includes but is not limited to education efforts, promotion and advocacy, research, and rehabilitation capacity building. When asked about her work at Mama, LLC, Dr. Keyser reports: “We see the health concerns of women and girls around the world as experiences on the same continuum. While women in low income, low resource settings...

International Pelvic Health Physical Therapy

June 4, 2019June 12, 2019 by Kayla CheeNo Comments

Part 2: How Physical Therapists Are Helping Women’s Health on the Global Stage In January, I attended a presentation by Dr. Laura Keyser, a prominent figure in world of pelvic and global health. Keyser has been a physical therapist for 12 years and has developed public health expertise in maternal and child health. She also is the co-founder of Mama, LLC, which is a physical therapy and public health consulting firm that specializes in women’s and girl’s health. I had the wonderful opportunity to pick Dr. Keyser’s brain about global women’s health issues and how she sees physical therapy helping solve those problems. For the past ten years, Dr. Keyser has acted as a consultant to local and international organizations such as Global Strategies, EngenderHealth, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Panzi Hospital and Foundations and HEAL Africa DRC. Through this role she has developed rehabilitation programs and community outreach initiatives in many parts of Africa and south Asia. When asked about her first...

Pelvic Health Physical Therapy

February 21, 2019February 21, 2019 by Kayla CheeNo Comments

Part 1: An Introduction to Pelvic Health Therapy Services Throughout my studies in Duke’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program, I have become exposed to many different types of physical therapy that I never knew existed. In addition to the more common fields of physical therapy, such as orthopedics and neurological, physical therapists are critical health care providers for premature infants in the NICU, for injured dogs and horses, and for individuals with pelvic floor dysfunction. Pelvic health physical therapists can help treat patients with such as urinary or fecal incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, dyspareunia (pain during intercourse), pelvic pain, chronic low back pain, sacroiliac joint dysfunction, and a variety of other conditions. To treat some of these conditions, physical therapists help relax spasming of pelvic floor muscles through manual therapy manipulations, strengthen pelvic floor muscles through biofeedback systems and exercise prescription, and re-educate the bladder with strategies such as bowel/bladder diaries or bladder voiding schedules. As such, physical therapists play a vital...

MY NEWFOUND AWARENESS ON SEXUAL HEALTH RIGHTS FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

October 25, 2018October 25, 2018 by Kayla CheeNo Comments

As a student physical therapist, my future career is primarily to serve individuals with short-term or long-term physical disability. Working with individuals of various forms of physical disability such as those with cerebral palsy, to stroke survivors, to amputees, I have become more aware and appreciative of buildings and spaces that are physically accessible with ramps, elevators, and ADA bathrooms. However, despite my acute awareness of physical accessibility for individuals with disability, accessibility to sexual and reproductive health for this population was not something that crossed my mind until I stumbled on the anecdote by Stella Chiwaka. Chiwaka, born with albinism, was denied contraceptives at a local health center in Malawi and was told by a health provider that “People like you should not have sex”. As a future health provider, I found this discriminatory act appalling. People with disabilities, just as those without disabilities, have the right to make their own choices--including choices regarding their sexuality and sexual health. To...

Combating Maternal Mortality with Midwives

September 19, 2018September 21, 2018 by Kayla CheeNo Comments

Article by Kayla Chee Despite the fact that maternal mortality dropped 44% between 1990 and 2015, maternal health mortality is still a problem our world faces today, with 99% of maternal deaths occurring in developing countries. A study performed by Homer, CS, Friberg, IK, Dias, MA et al in 2014 found that 83% of all maternal deaths, newborn deaths, and stillbirths could be averted through midwifery care and family planning, indicating the dire importance of midwifery services. To support midwifery programs and the fight against maternal health, The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, has coordinated with over 40 global partners and over 300 national partners to improve access to quality midwifery education, training, and services. Since 2009, the UNFPA has worked in 120 countries, helped train over 105,000 midwives, and supported bachelor’s and master’s programs for midwives in 15 countries. UNFPA’s collaboration with national governments to ensure midwifery autonomy has prompted...

The Rohingya Displacement Crisis and Its Effect on Reproductive Health

September 5, 2018September 21, 2018 by Kayla CheeNo Comments

Article by Kayla Chee It has been just over a year since the beginning of the Rohingya displacement crisis. Since August 2017, Rohingya Muslims living in the Rakhine State of Myanmar have endured the brutal and inhumane ethnic cleansing of their people at the hands of Myanmar security forces. Mass killings, sexual violence, arson, and other humanitarian crimes inflicted by the Rakhine State military have motivated many Rohingya Muslims to escape and seek refuge in neighboring countries. The United Nations estimates close to 900,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled out of Myanmar to nearby Bangladesh. Bangladesh, a lower-middle income country with existing problems of poor economic development, high population density, and limited access to healthcare, has little to offer the Rohingya Muslims living in these displacement camps of Cox’s Bazaar. The camps’ immense overcrowding and unstable hillside terrain prone to landslides and floods make living conditions dangerous with little access to basic needs. The culminating problems of food insecurity, unsafe shelter, poor water...