Introduction
This topic covers the health of women and mothers: how maternal health is defined, the medico-social determinants of maternal problems, the Maternal Health Programme of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) in Bulgaria, screening, folic acid, social protection and the legal framework.
Definitions
- Maternal health: the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period.
- Perinatal health: health from 22 completed weeks of gestation until 7 completed days after birth. A healthy start during the perinatal period influences infancy, childhood and adulthood.
- Newborn health: babies' first month of life.
Strategy adopted for reproductive health
- In 2004 the World Health Assembly adopted a strategy for reproductive health to accelerate progress towards international goals and targets, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
- All 53 Member States in the WHO European Region approved the strategy; improving maternal and newborn health is 1 of its 5 core aspects.
- Achieving MDG 5 (improved maternal health) is essential to achieving MDG 4 (reduced child mortality).
- In 2008 MDG target 5B, “Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health”, was added to decrease inequality in the social determinants of sexual and reproductive health and reduce maternal mortality.