[“Forgetting” the newborn: An anthropological analysis in Mauritania]
Sante Publique (Vandoeuvre-Les-Nancy, France)
|May 7, 2020
Summary
Newborn care is often overlooked in Mauritania, with health workers deprioritizing essential care for newborns immediately after birth. This study highlights the need to refocus attention on newborns to improve neonatal survival rates.
Area of Science:
- Medical Anthropology
- Global Health
- Maternal and Child Health
Background:
- Neonatal mortality remains a significant challenge in West Africa, including Mauritania.
- Existing programs to combat neonatal mortality have shown mixed success.
- Understanding health worker practices in neonatal care is crucial for program improvement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how health workers in Mauritania are involved in neonatal care.
- To identify factors contributing to the neglect of newborn care immediately after birth.
- To propose strategies for enhancing the quality of neonatal care.
Main Methods:
- An anthropological study was conducted in the Senegal River Valley, Mauritania.
- Methods included ethnography of a health center, direct observation of care, and interviews with health workers.
Main Results:
- Caregivers' attention shifts away from newborns in the critical minutes and hours post-birth.
- Essential newborn care practices like thermal protection and examination are often not provided.
- Newborn care is frequently neglected in the sequence of childbirth actions and professional responsibilities.
Conclusions:
- Newborn care at birth is inadequately medicalized in the study setting.
- Health worker disengagement stems from perceived uncertainty in neonatal survival and the prevalence of local childbirth practices.
- Re-emphasizing the newborn's importance is essential for improving neonatal care quality.
More Related Videos
06:35Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
Published on: April 28, 2016
34.9K
11:14A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants
Published on: October 4, 2015
11.3K
Related Concept Videos
01:21The Nativist Approach
308
The nativist approach to infant cognitive development proposes that infants are born with inherent knowledge structures that allow them to interpret the world almost immediately. This perspective contrasts with earlier developmental theories, such as those proposed by Jean Piaget, which emphasized a more gradual acquisition of cognitive abilities through interaction with the environment. One key concept in this approach is object permanence — the understanding that objects continue to...
308
01:21Forgetting
293
Forgetting is an intrinsic aspect of human memory, characterized by the gradual loss or inaccessibility of information over time. Hermann Ebbinghaus, a pioneering psychologist, extensively studied this phenomenon and formulated the forgetting curve. This curve illustrates that memory loss occurs rapidly immediately after learning and then decelerates over time. Several mechanisms contribute to forgetting, including encoding failure, storage decay, retrieval failure, and interference.
Encoding...
Encoding...
293
01:14Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development
1.4K
The sensorimotor stage, the initial phase of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, spans the first two years of a child's life. During this period, infants actively engage with their surroundings, building cognitive awareness through direct interaction with the world. This interaction is primarily based on sensory perception and motor actions, allowing infants to gradually understand basic physical properties and predict how objects interact within their environment.
Exploration...
Exploration...
1.4K
02:30Naturalistic Observations
16.9K
If you want to understand how behavior occurs, one of the best ways to gain information is to simply observe the behavior in its natural context. However, people might change their behavior in unexpected ways if they know they are being observed. How do researchers obtain accurate information when people tend to hide their natural behavior? As an example, imagine that your professor asks everyone in your class to raise their hand if they always wash their hands after using the restroom. Chances...
16.9K
01:20Attachment
409
Attachment is vital for infant development, as warm social interactions support growth and well-being. In a classic 1958 study by Harry Harlow, the significance of warmth and comfort in forming attachments was examined. Harlow separated newborn monkeys from their mothers and provided two artificial "mothers": one made of cold wire and the other covered in soft cloth. Despite the wire mother offering food, the infant monkeys preferred the comfort of the cloth mother, demonstrating that...
409
01:13Amnesia
355
Amnesia is a condition marked by long-term memory loss, which impairs the ability to recall past events or create new memories.
The severity and duration of memory loss vary depending on the type and underlying cause. Amnesia is classified into two main types: retrograde and anterograde.
Retrograde amnesia is marked by the loss of memories formed before the onset of the condition. Patients may recall distant past events but often forget those occurring shortly before the incident.
Anterograde...
The severity and duration of memory loss vary depending on the type and underlying cause. Amnesia is classified into two main types: retrograde and anterograde.
Retrograde amnesia is marked by the loss of memories formed before the onset of the condition. Patients may recall distant past events but often forget those occurring shortly before the incident.
Anterograde...
355