MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH NURSING CARE
The nurse acquires and
Maternal and child health nursing can be visualized
within a framework in which nurses, using nursing
process, nursing theory, and evidence based practice,
care for families during childbearing and childrearing
years through four phases of health care:
 Health promotion- educate to be aware of good
health
 Health maintenance- intervene to maintain
health
 Health restoration- prompt diagnosis and
treatment of illness
 Health rehabilitation- prevent further
complications; bringing back to an optimal state of
wellness
GOALS AND PHILOSOPHIES OF MATERNAL AND
CHILD HEALTH NURSING
Goals
 Primary goal of maternal and child health nursing
care can be stated simply as the promotion and
maintenance of optimal family health to ensure
cycles of optimal childbearing and childrearing.
Range of practice includes:
 Preconceptual health care
 Care of women during three trimesters of
pregnancy and the puerperium (the 6 weeks after
childbirth, sometimes termed the fourth trimester
of pregnancy)
 Care of children during the perinatal period (6
weeks before conception to 6 weeks after birth)
 Care of children from birth through adolescence
 Care in settings as varied as the birthing room,
the pediatric intensive care unit, and the home
Inherited gene defects in fibrilin result in formation
of abnormal elastic fibers
Philosophies
1. Maternal and child health nursing is family
centered.
2. Maternal and child health nursing is community
centered.
3. Maternal and child health nursing is research
oriented.
4. Both nursing theory and evidence-based practice
provide a foundation for nursing care.
5. A maternal and child health nurse serves as an
advocate to protect the rights of all family
members, including the fetus.
6. Maternal and child health nursing includes a high
degree of independent nursing functions. Longer
puberty active growth.
7. Promoting health is an important nursing role.
8. Pregnancy or childhood illness can be stressful
and can alter family life in both subtle and
extensive ways.
9. Personal, cultural, and religious attitudes and
beliefs influence the meaning of illness and its
impact on the family.
10. Maternal and child health nursing is a challenging
role for a nurse and is a major factor in promoting
high-level wellness in families.
Maternal and Child Health Goals and Standards
Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and
Neonatal
Nurses Standards and Guidelines
Standards of Professional Performance
Standard I: Quality of Care. The nurse systematically
evaluates the quality and effectiveness of nursing
practice.
Standard II: Performance Appraisal. The nurse
evaluates his/her own nursing practice in relation to
professional practice standards and relevant statutes
and regulations.
Standard III: Education.
maintains current knowledge in nursing practice.
Standard IV: Collegiality. The nurse contributes to the
professional development of peers, colleagues, and
others.
Standard V: Ethics.
The nurse’s decisions and actions on behalf of
patients are determined in an ethical manner.
Standard VI: Collaboration.
The nurse collaborates with the patient, significant
others, and health care providers in providing patient
care.
Standard VII: Research.
The nurse uses research findings in practice.
Standard VIII: Resource Utilization.
The nurse considers factors related to safety,
effectiveness, and cost in planning and delivering
patient care.
Standard IX: Practice Environment.
The nurse contributes to the environment of care
delivery within the practice settings.
Standard X: Accountability.
The nurse is professionally and legally accountable
for his/her practice. The professional registered nurse
may delegate to and supervise qualified personnel
who provide patient care.
Theories Related to Maternal and Child Nursing
 Patricia Benner
- Nursing is a caring relationship. Nurses grow from
novice to expert as they practice in clinical
settings
 Dorothy Johnson
- A person comprises subsystems that must remain
in balance for optimal functioning. Any actual or
potential threat to this system balance is a nursing
concern
 Imogene King
- Nursing is a process of action, reaction,
interaction, and transaction; needs are identified
based on client’s social system, perceptions, and
health; the role of the nurse is to help the client
achieve goal attainment.
 Madeleine Leininger
- The essence of nursing is care. To provide
transcultural care, the nurse focuses on the study
and analysis of different cultures with respect to
caring behavior
 Florence Nightingale
- The role of the nurse is viewed as changing or
structuring elements of the environment such as
ventilation, temperature, odors, noise, and light to
put the client into the best opportunity for recovery
 Betty Neuman
- A person is an open system that interacts with the
environment; nursing is aimed at reducing
stressors through primary, secondary, and tertiary
prevention.
 Dorothea Orem
- The focus of nursing is on the individual; clients
are assessed in terms of ability to complete self-
care. Care given may be wholly compensatory
(client has no role); partly compensatory (client
participates in care); or supportive-educational
(client performs own care).
 Ida Jean Orlando
- The focus of the nurse is interaction with the
client; effectiveness of care depends on the
client’s behavior and the nurse’s reaction to that
behavior. The client should define his or her own
needs.
 Rosemarie Rizzo Parse
- Nursing is a human science. Health is a lived
experience. Man-living-health as a single unit
guides practice.
 Hildegard Peplau
- The promotion of health is viewed as the forward
movement of the personality; this is accomplished
through an interpersonal process that includes
orientation, identification, exploitation, and
resolution.
 Martha Rogers
- The purpose of nursing is to move the client
toward optimal health; the nurse should view the
client as whole and constantly changing and help
people to interact in the best way possible with the
environment.
 Sister Callista Roy
- The role of the nurse is to aid clients to adapt to
the change caused by illness; levels of adaptation
depend on the degree of environmental change
and state of coping ability; full adaptation includes
physiologic interdependence.

Roles and Responsibilities of a Maternal Child

Nurse
 Clinical nurse specialist
 Case manager
 Women’s health nurse practitioner
 Family nurse practitioner
 Neonatal nurse practitioner
 Pediatric nurse practitioner
 Nurse-midwife

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

to transform our world
GOAL 1: No Poverty
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
GOAL 4: Quality Education
GOAL 5: Gender Equality
GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
GOAL 13: Climate Action
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
GOAL 15: Life on Land
GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
REPRODUCTIVE AND SEXUAL HEALTH
Unitive and Procreative Health
 Unitive - specific type of physical union, the
sexual union of a man and woman in natural
intercourse. This type of sexual act is in harmony
with and ordered towards procreation.
 Procreation - focuses on the conceiving and
bearing of offspring.
 Procreative health - the moral obligation of
parents to have the healthiest children through all
natural and artificial means available.
Principles of Procreation
1. Sex is a search for sensual pleasure and
satisfaction, releasing physical and psychic
tensions.
2. Sex is a search for the completion of the human
person through an intimate personal union of love
expressed by bodily union for the achievement of
a more complete humanity.
3. Sex is a social necessity for procreation of
children and their education in the family so as to
expand the human community and guarantee its
future beyond death.
4. Sex is a symbolic (sacramental) mystery,
somehow revealing the cosmic order.
Process of Human Reproduction
Practices and behaviors surrounding human
reproduction vary widely across cultures, but in every
case, it involves sperm, an ovum, a uterus and a
baby.
 Family history of Disease - including those who
have died as part of the family
 OB History of pregnancy issues - like exposure to
teratogens such as radiation, certain drugs,
viruses, toxins and chemicals
Common Tests for Determination of Genetic
Abnormalities
Goals:
a) Enables individuals or couples to make informed
reproductive decisions
b) Provides psychological support for decision
making.
c) Provides clients with information about the defect
in question.
d) Communicates to clients the risk of transmitting
the defect in question to future children
Screening Tests for Genetic Traits and Disease
 Karyotyping– a visual display of the individual’s
actual chromosome pattern.
 Heterozygote screening - is directed at detecting
clinically normal carriers of a disease-causing
mutant gene, particularly in people of ethnic
groups with high frequency of the mutant gene
under investigation.
 Maternal Serum Alpha-Fetoprotein (MSAFP) –
screen is done when an open neural tube is
suspected.
 Triple Screening – analysis of 3 indicators from
MSAFP, Estriol, and Human Chorionic
Gonadotropin

Meiosis
- type of cell division that reduces chromosomes in
the parent cell by half and produces gamete cells
- only for reproductive cells
- end product: sperm and egg cell (23
chromosomes, 22 autosomes and 1 x or y
chromosome)

Mechanism of Heredity
When a sperm cell penetrates the ovum’s barrier, its
23 chromosomes fuse with the ovum’s 23
chromosomes, forming the zygote.

Inheritance
 Genes- basic unit of heredity, responsible for
physical and cognitive characteristics, composed
of segments of DNA, compromises genotype (ex.
eye color)
 Allele- variant of gene (ex. brown)
 Genotype- complete set of inherited traits
 Phenotype- how these traits are expressed
 Homozygous- the same alleles
 Heterozygous- different versions of the trait

Risk Factors for Genetic Disorder

 Age ( mother and father )- risks increases with
age
 Race /Ethnic Background- certain disorders occur
more frequently in some ethnic groups compared
to others