Week 4

   Ok, so this week we were assigned to conduct research using scholarly (peer

reviewed) journals which I thought was pretty swell because while searching for

books on my topic last week it seemed like all that I could find for the first few

days were articles! So I jumped on the Leather Library homepage, a site that I 

determined three months ago when I enrolled that I would not be getting to 

know very well, add that to the list of things I've been wrong about. I then 

clicked on several unreasonable small fonted links until I got to Academic

Search Premier to look for my article. So, Academic Search Premier was a first 

for me and I have to say that I love the idea of having a data base of articles 

and journals because I am sort of an information junkie and articles and 

scholarly essays are great sources! The search options here looked pretty

similar to the Advanced Search so no trouble there. I conducted three searches

uses a different combination of keywords and narrow my search each time. The

third search contained my article, it called to me from among the eight

that presented themselves. One thing I did differently for the very first time

was was to create a range filter on the publication date. I narrowed it to

between the years 2013-2015 on this third search. 

   
   I chose the article Reflections on Maternal Mortality Millennium Goal, which 

delves into the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal, set at the 

beginning of the new millennium, of a 75% reduction in global maternal

mortality by the year 2015. The article’s purpose is to broadly address the

global responses in maternal mortality since that time in 2000. From this reflection I discovered that 11 countries' maternal mortality rates worldwide have actually increased since these goals were set 15 years ago. Not surprisingly however, Chad is among those troublesome 11. Then the articles  goes on to explain some reasons for the lack of improvement in the area of maternal mortality which I had not yet read about or even considered. The reasons I found most compelling and useful for my research, was high fertility rates (6.1 in Chad), the absence of laws and policies mandating maternal death notifications, and the lack of political commitment by national and local governments to making maternal mortality and women’s health in general a financial priority within the health budget. I had already read a few statements last week about the role of government in maternal and child mortality but this article solidified in my mind the political responsibility that exist in these issues. Additionally, the issue of maternal death notifications not being required and the effects that this lack of accountability and reporting can be assumed as having was a completely new idea for me. Both of these points are steering me toward conducting more research specifically on the impact that politics, law, and policy are having on Chad’s maternal and child mortality.

Lawson, G. W., & Keirse, M. J. (2013). Reflections on the Maternal Mortality Millennium Goal. Birth: Issues In Perinatal Care, 40(2), 96-102 7p. doi:10.1111/birt.12041