Assignment #1

Week 1

Direction: Give a Short Description of the following Terms related to Maternal & Child Health.

Submit them in a PDF file format only.

A. Alternative Healthcare Practices Commonly Used

 Acupuncture - involves the insertion of very thin needles through your skin at strategic
points on your body. A key component of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture is most
commonly used to treat pain. Increasingly, it is being used for overall wellness, including
stress management.

 Homeopathy - the treatment of disease by minute doses of natural substances that in a

healthy person would produce symptoms of disease.

 Therapeutic touch - therapists place their hands on or near their patient's body with the
intention to help or heal. In doing so, therapists believe that they are consciously directing
or modulating an individual's energies by interacting with his or her energy field.

 Chiropractic care - use hands-on spinal manipulation and other alternative treatments. The
theory is that proper alignment of the body's musculoskeletal structure, particularly the
spine, will enable the body to heal itself without surgery or medication. Manipulation is
used to restore mobility to joints restricted by tissue injury caused by a traumatic event,
such as falling, or repetitive stress, such as sitting without proper back support.

 Herbalism - the study or practice of the medicinal and therapeutic use of plants, now
especially as a form of alternative medicine.

B. Statistics Related to the Measurement of Maternal and Child Health #1

 Birth rate - the number of live births per thousand of population per year.

 Fertility rate - the total number of children that would be born to each woman if she were to
live to the end of her child-bearing years and give birth to children in alignment with the
prevailing age-specific fertility rates.

 Fetal death rate - the number of resident fetal deaths in a specified geographic area
(country, state, county, etc.) divided by the number of resident live births plus fetal deaths
for the same geographic area (for a specified time period, usually a calendar year) and
multiplied by 1,000.

 Neonatal death rate - a death during the first 28 days of life (0-27 days)

 Perinatal death rate - comprise stillbirths (fetal deaths) and deaths of infants within the first
28 days of life (neonatal deaths). Stillbirths are defined to include fetuses weighing at least
400 grams or having a gestational age of 20 weeks.
C. Statistics Related to the Measurement of Maternal and Child Health #2

 Maternal mortality rate - the number of resident maternal deaths within 42 days of
pregnancy termination due to complications of pregnancy, childbirth, and the puerperium in
a specified geographic area (country, state, county, etc.)

 Infant mortality rate - the number of resident newborns in a specified geographic area
(country, state, county, etc.) dying under one year of age divided by the number of resident
live births for the same geographic area (for a specified time period, usually a calendar year)
and multiplied by 1,000.

 Childhood mortality rate - is the mortality of children under the age of five. The child
mortality rate, also 'under-five mortality rate', refers to the probability of dying between
birth and exactly five years of age expressed per 1,000 live births.

 Childhood morbidity rate - an assessment of the frequency of an event making itself known
or occurring in a defined population. Morbidity rate is a broad statistic that relates to
the likelihood of developing or contracting a certain illness or event.