Janelle McAlpine MMRes BA (Human Bioscience) BMid
Registered Midwife
The health of mothers and babies worldwide is an area of great concern, yet is not well understood. There are some things we know, some that are a guess, some that we truly have no idea about. Take pre-eclampsia (aka PET), for instance. PET (and other blood pressure problems in pregnancy) affect about 10% of women worldwide. It doesn’t discriminate between developed and developing countries; it happens in women of varying ethnicity. We know what increases your risk of getting it….but don’t really know why it happens in the first place. The same applies to pre-term birth. It doesn’t matter if they were born in Australia or in South Sudan – out of every 100 babies that die anywhere in the world, 35 will have done so because they were born too early.
Education and health go hand in hand. The evidence demonstrating the links is overwhelming (1)
Research on pregnancy and birth on a global scale is hampered by the fact it is so far spread and is often specific to certain groups of women. Granted, there are things that differ between cultures that may be of interest to researchers, but approaching research in this manner makes it difficult to compare women who live in different countries. When we try and look at the big picture we find that the information we are looking for is chopped up into little pieces and spread among some other stuff that is kind of like the same thing, only not really.
It’s like comparing apples to…well…fruit salad.
We know it’s in there somewhere……but pulling it apart and trying to piece it together – well, its just never going to be the same.
(By the way, if this picture has made you hungry, feel free to click on it to become a member (it’s FREE!) and tell us about the fruit and vegetables you eat).
While pregnancy and birth outcomes may be influenced by factors such as diet and culture, we are all women. We were all designed to work the same way. So what is it that means one woman gets PET, while the woman beside her enjoys a healthy pregnancy? What were the factors that came together for this baby to be born early, and the other one late?
Getting together and sharing our knowledge today is in some ways easier than even 20 years ago; in other ways its harder. While in some regions of the world knowledge is passed to a woman by her mother and aunties and elders and sisters, in developed countries the arrival of the internet has brought a whole new world of communication upon us. We are now closer than ever to people a world away – and more disconnected with those closest to us. The concept of community these days is not restricted by the confines of geography; rather only by a person’s willingness to engage with technology. The thing is – technology isn’t going away any time soon. If we are to stay engaged with those around us, we need to create a new kind of community. We use the internet to talk, to promote ourselves, and to do business – but research is yet to catch on. Despite this technological shift, research methods have been slow to keep up with the times – something highlighted by the World Health Organisation in 2015 (2).
More mHealth applications exist for pregnancy related information than any other topic (3); in fact in one Australian study, 40% of women reported using at least one pregnancy app during their pregnancy. Some users went on to describe them as more relevant and useful than other forms of health communication. Women who used apps also felt better prepared for motherhood (4). Whether this is the case everywhere we don’t really know; however the amount of pregnancy app downloads every year suggests that women are looking for more information, and educating themselves; it also suggests that they are taking charge of their own education, and in the process enhancing their decision making power (3).
Ironically, the needs of pregnant women that have been noted as being behind this popularity in mHealth – connectivity, reassurance and the need for information – are the features of community that were lost when our world got that little bit smaller.
If we take all of this into consideration, the creation of an online community such as this can be of great benefit to women; and mothers; and research alike.
So, for the women who use this website – its all yours. No ads, so selling anything – just the information you are looking for, from highly qualified and experienced midwives. We know how important it is for you do to your homework. We want to hear your birth stories. We want you to own it. Wherever you are, whoever you are.
For midwives – if you have something to share, let us know. We look forward to hearing from midwives and birth attendants about what birth is like in your corner of the world, your challenges and triumphs. We need to get the contacts for support in your country so that we can share them on this site. Please send them our way.
We welcome your input and value your contribution to the My Body, My Baby community. The stories you send us will be used by others to inform and empower themselves, to build their knowledge and take back responsibility for their own health. The information you so generously provide in completing the surveys will be used to investigate why things happen the way they do. It is through this shared knowledge that we absorb the knowledge of others, and in some way bring back storytelling as a form of childbirth education. It can only make for an even richer resource, and a stronger community from which to draw wisdom.
So, to finish, together we can kill two birds with one stone.
Here we have the opportunity to create a rich and colourful community that women can access for knowledge and support – both as mothers and midwives – bringing together the guardians of knowledge, and the guardians of normal birth.
…and here, we can come together and pool our information – all women, all around the world, all in one place….Why?
Because by getting everybody on the same page we can identify the constants…
by eliminating the constants we can find where the differences lie….
and in researching the differences, discoveries can be made.
In other words….
comparing apples to apples.
References:
- http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2010/educationandhealth_20100920/en/
- World Health Organisation. Every woman every child stakeholder consultation – summary of main outcomes. Accountability for womens and childrens health; 2014; Geneva; 2014.
- Tripp N, Hainey K, Liu A, et al. An emerging model of maternity care: smartphone, midwife, doctor? Women and birth : journal of the Australian College of Midwives 2014; 27(1): 64.
- Rodger D, Skuse A, Wilmore M, et al. Pregnant women’s use of information and communications technologies to access pregnancy-related health information in South Australia. Australian journal of primary health 2013; 19(4): 308.