Links Between Maternal Depression in a Mother and her Child’s Psychological and Immune Health

Links Between Maternal Depression in a Mother and her Child’s Psychological and Immune Health

by Emily WoodrowNo Comments
Maternal depression is a global public health concern that occurs before and after pregnancy and largely affects the mental health and daily life of a woman. The CDC states that 1 in every 9 women can experience postpartum depression which occurs after having a baby. Often, this type of depression women face goes undiagnosed and they do not receive treatment. Recent studies have concluded that a mother’s depression can have long term impacts on her child. Investigators found that mothers with depression have higher amounts of cortisol, a stress hormone, and SIgA, an antibody that indicates an activation of the immune system. Additionally, in studies of these same mother’s behaviors, their actions are found to be more insensitive and intrusive in regards to the treatment of their child causing the child’s stress level to be greatly impacted. Results also pointed to higher levels of SIgA in children of mothers facing maternal depression meaning their immune systems are more frequently disrupted....
Read More

Innovative Ways for Women in Refugee Camps to Find Maternal Health Care

by Emily WoodrowNo Comments
For women living in refugee camps, there is a lack of maternal health facilities on site and finding aid and safe transportation to offsite facilities can be very difficult. Often, refugee camps can be located in rural areas and or conflict zones causing a lack of specialized doctors close to the camp and security issues with traveling outside the camp such as attacks on ambulances. It is vital for a pregnant woman to be able to receive obstetric care in any emergency situation. In order to help refugee women find timely and quality care, mobile clinics and “mama taxis” have been installed in many camps to aid prenatal and postpartum healthcare. The UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) has led the development of mobile clinics which are “clinics on wheels” equipped with necessary medicines, tools, machines, doctors, nurses, etc. and can meet a woman in need so she does not have to travel around or leave a camp. With similar intentions,...
Read More
US Preventive Services Task Force recommends primary cervical HPV testing as an effective cervical cancer screening method

US Preventive Services Task Force recommends primary cervical HPV testing as an effective cervical cancer screening method

by Emily WoodrowNo Comments
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide. In the US, deaths from cervical cancer have decreased by more than 50 percent over the past 60 years, since the introduction of regular screening tests that detect high-grade precancerous cervical lesions and cervical cancer. However, over 13,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer annually and about 4,200 women die from it, even with screening and treatment. Recommendations continue to evolve, reflecting the latest screening technology and evidence. The new USPSTF recommendations for screening have been recently published in the latest issue of JAMA. Women over 30 now have three options for screening, including HPV testing alone; the other two options are pap smear and a combination of pap smear and HPV testing. HPV testing has been shown to be more effective than a pap test as it is able to detect precancerous cells earlier and more accurately than cytology. These screening guidelines update the previous guidelines; now, for...
Read More
Health Systems Barriers to Cervical Cancer Prevention in Kenya

Health Systems Barriers to Cervical Cancer Prevention in Kenya

by Megan HuchkoNo Comments
Blog by Charlotte Page, Ob/Gyn Resident: This is a follow-up post to “Patient Barriers to Cervical Cancer Prevention in Kenya”. I’ve realized while in Kenya that there are a lot of things I take for granted in bathrooms in the US: running water, a toilet that flushes, toilet paper, soap, and electricity. If you’re missing one of these things, the restroom is that much more uncomfortable – or perhaps even unfunctional. Similarly, small systems issues here in Kenya can inhibit women from receiving the healthcare they need. For the HPV-positive women in the study I’m working on, such problems can significantly increase the amount of time and effort required to get treated with cryotherapy, to the point that some women don’t obtain treatment at all. To paint a picture: yesterday I was at Migori County Referral Hospital (MCRH), one of the sites where cryotherapy is provided in our study. This procedure uses compressed gas to freeze precancerous cells on the cervix, thereby preventing them...
Read More
CDC Report Finds Increased Risk of Birth Defects and Developmental Problems in Infants Born to Zika-Exposed Mothers

CDC Report Finds Increased Risk of Birth Defects and Developmental Problems in Infants Born to Zika-Exposed Mothers

by Megan HuchkoNo Comments
The world’s public health experts have been actively addressing the Zika crisis since it was discovered two years ago. Travel warnings, diagnostics testing, pregnancy guidelines and vector control have prevented substantial numbers of infants born with the devastating impacts of microcephaly. The CDC followed up 1450 US children born to mothers who had suspected or confirmed Zika, and released the findings from their one year follow-up. In addition to microcephaly, the infants had an increased rate of birth defects and neurodevelopmental delays. The study also found that the majority of children had not undergone neuroimaging or an eye examination, leading to missed opportunities to detect and possibly address problems at an early age. The authors recommended increased screening among pediatric providers and referral to specialists for children of zika-exposed mothers. The CDC will continue to follow these infants, and is currently following up a Brazilian cohort through the ZODIAC study. As we await the results of these longer-term studies, these...
Read More
Gaining Insight into Kenyan Community Health

Gaining Insight into Kenyan Community Health

by Megan HuchkoNo Comments
Blog by Amber Fleck, MS2, University of Colorado: In the United States, health education is seemingly everywhere: ads online reminding women of the importance of pap smears, TV commercials advising against smoking, or posters in bar bathrooms providing safe sex advice. With this abundance of exposure to health education, it is a striking difference to visit a country where many communities don’t have regular access to this kind of information, especially if that information regards sexual or reproductive health. In an effort to bridge this gap and enhance community health education the Kenya Ministry of Health began using lay workers, also known as community health volunteers (CHVs). CHVs travel door-to-door in their assigned communities to educate individuals about disease management, including reproductive and maternal health, and provide referrals to the clinic when necessary. In theory, this is an excellent way to increase access to health information and care; however, these programs have had some significant challenges. One challenge is that these are...
Read More
Data+ Team Introduces Novel Visualization Methods to Understand Contraceptive Trends

Data+ Team Introduces Novel Visualization Methods to Understand Contraceptive Trends

by Megan HuchkoNo Comments
Saumya Sao (T ’20, Gender, Feminist and Sexuality; Global Health) and Melanie Lai Wei (Masters’ Candidate, Statistical Science) were proud to share the results of their 10-week Data+ project, Big Data for Reproductive Health, or BD4RH. The pair was just one of 25 teams that spent the summer using data-driven approaches to solve interdisciplinary challenges. The BD4RH team, led by Amy Finnegan and Megan Huchko, sought to build a web-based application that will allow users to visualize and analyze contraceptive calendar data from the DHS. To ground their project, they did a mapping exercise to identify currently available tools, identifying core elements they liked and key areas a new tool could improve. Using this data, and user feedback from various stakeholders in the field, they created a website that hosts four different data visualization methods to interpret trends in contraceptive use from the DHS contraceptive calendar. The site currently uses Kenya data to demonstrate efficacy, but datasets will be added...
Read More
Legislation Promoting HPV Vaccine Use Does NOT Increase Risky Sexual Behavior

Legislation Promoting HPV Vaccine Use Does NOT Increase Risky Sexual Behavior

by Megan HuchkoNo Comments
  The relatively low HPV vaccine uptake in the US has been attributed in part to fears that vaccinating against the sexually transmitted virus would encourage early or risky sexual behavior in adolescents. To look at the potential impact of pro-vaccine legislation on behaviors, researchers compared CDC surveillance data on teen sexual activity in states in the US with policies promoting or mandating HPV vaccination among adolescents to states without any specific vaccination policies in a study published in Pediatrics this month. They found no difference in reported sexual activity or risk behavior in states with vaccine legislation. These results support a prior study in which researchers looked at diagnosis of sexually transmitted infection as a marker for sexual activity or increased risk behavior, and found that there was no difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated adolescents over the five year study period. Despite this consistent, reassuring evidence that vaccinating for HPV will not increase sexual activity among adolescents, the US has...
Read More
India’s Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act raises eyebrows, initiating conversations on improving current policy

India’s Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act raises eyebrows, initiating conversations on improving current policy

by Yujung ChoiNo Comments
Last year, India amended its Maternity Benefit Act. While it was praised in “making India proud around the world” and “bringing women in workforce closer to workplace equality” as the amendment increased the paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks, negative consequences also surfaced. With employers being held liable for the entire cost of funding the maternity leave to employees, over a quarter of the small and medium enterprises and startups in a survey indicated that they preferred to hire male employees, rendering the amendment more damaging than helpful for female employees. Several solutions were proposed to remedy this situation and make the Maternity Benfit Act more appealing to the employers: 1) provision of tax: employers provide job-protected leave while the wage replacement is funded through an employee payroll tax; and 2) gender-neutral paid leave: the 26-week leave is split equally between the dad and mom so that no employer bears the entire burden of having its employee...
Read More
Still A Long Way To Go: Fighting Gender Disparities in Medicine

Still A Long Way To Go: Fighting Gender Disparities in Medicine

by Yujung ChoiNo Comments
A recent report revealed a prestigious Japanese medical school has systematically lowered entrance exam scores of female applicants, preventing women from entering the school for years. Many women quitting medicine after getting married or having children were cited as reasons for altering the exam scores and excluding women. Countries, in which women are steadily becoming a majority of entering medical students such as the US, UK, and Canada, are no exception to encountering these criticisms. Some argue that the changing gender composition of the medical workforce has negative economic and workforce implications because: more female doctors are working part time compared to their male colleagues; more women plan to retire before the age of 65 than men, shortening their working life; women have longer consultations with patients and see fewer patients than male doctors. However, as Yoshiko Maeda, head of the Japan Medical Women's Association, stated in the article, instead of worrying about women quitting jobs, "we need a working...
Read More
«‹2930313233›»