Achieving Proportional Representation In A Reproductive Health Survey Through Social Media: Process And Recommendations

Background: The narrative surrounding women’s reproductive health has shifted from a medical model to an emphasis on reproductive well-being over different life-stages. We developed and piloted a tracker survey for monitoring women’s reproductive health and well-being in England, recruiting respondents online. This paper reports on the success of the online recruitment strategies in achieving a sample proportionally representative of the England general population.Methods: Recruitment was through Facebook and Instagram advertisements and dissemination through Twitter and a blog. At the end week one, the sample was reviewed and compared to the 2011 Census England population. From week two, recruitment targeted under-represented groups. Key data were compared with prevalence estimates from the Third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3).Results: Between 1 July-17 August 2021, 13,962 people initiated the online survey, with 11,578 completing it. Numbers were low initially, but peaked at 1700 survey initiations per day after increasing the daily advertisement budget on day seven. At the end of week one, minority ethnic groups and people without a degree or equivalent were under-represented. From week two, we altered the advertisement settings to show to people whose profile indicated they were a ‘high school leaver’ had ‘up to some high school’, worked in industries that do not typically require a degree or lived in local authorities with a high proportion of ethnic minority residents. This had a modest effect, with the final sample short of proportional representation in terms of ethnicity and education but close in terms of region and age. Compared to Natsal-3, we found consistency in the proportion of respondents reporting an abortion and a live birth in the last year, however, the proportion of our sample reporting ever having experienced infertility was significantly higher than in Natsal-3, as was the proportion of ‘planned’ pregnancies in the last year.Conclusions: It is possible to recruit large numbers of respondents online, relatively quickly, to complete a reproductive health survey. This will be valuable to track reproductive health and well-being at a national level over time. More work is needed to understand reasons for non-response among under-represented groups.

Effects of The Pandemic On Women’s Reproductive Health Protective Attitudes: A Turkish Sample

Background: Pandemics restrict access to reproductive healthcare services and worsen the inequalities in the delivery of healthcare services. This descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s reproductive health protective attitudes. Methods: The study sample included 306 women and data were collected through a web-based, online questionnaire. The data were collected using the Personal Information Form, Determination of Married Women's Reproductive Health Protective Attitudes Scale. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, ANOVA test were used to assess the data.Results: The mean scores for Determination of Married Women's Reproductive Health Protective Attitudes Scale significantly differed in terms of education, employment status, income, health insurance and perceived health status (p<0.05). Sixty-nine-point-three percent of the women had their first pregnancy at the agerange of 21-34 years, 17.6% of the women had four or more pregnancies, 55.6% of the women gave birth 1-3 times, 13.4% of the women gave birth at home and 57.8% of the women did not use an effective contraceptive. Twenty-three-point-two percent of the women experienced a problem with their reproductive organs during the pandemic, 70.6% of them did not present to a health center for their problems and 74.5% of these women did not present to a health center to avoid the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Forty-point-two percent of the women used the methods they already know at home to relieve their problems and 16.0% of the women used them edications previously prescribed by their doctors. Conclusion: The pandemic negatively affects there productive health of women. While health policies are modified to meet increased healthcare demands from COVID-19 patients and to eliminate the threat of the pandemic. The role of midwives and nurses is very important in the maintenance of reproductive health services.

Education on the importance of health awareness

Efforts to reduce the number of Covid-19 cases on a daily basis can begin with simple things like developing the habit of properly hand washing. In addition, education about women's reproductive health is provided. This service is carried out at the Robbani Foundation which has 13 foster children. This service promotes a better understanding of proper hand washing techniques. This activity is expected to help reduce the spread of Covid-19 by cultivating clean living education and sharing with orphans and poor.

Women of Color’s Reproductive Perils Reproduced

Last year, women detained at a Georgia ICE detention center accused a doctor of conducting various hysterectomies that were unwanted or without consent. These allegations echo past sterilization abuses on women of color and challenge us to recall some historical accounts of women's sterilization in Black and Brown communities in America, including eugenics programs targeting poor women of color. When particularly examining the women's reproductive health in the carceral system, there are direct conflicts between providing proper healthcare and human rights protections and the economic interests of privately operated detention centers. This essay reviews these concerns and recommends changes from government and carceral facilities.

Access to the Emergency Contraceptive Pill and Women's Reproductive Health: Evidence From Public Reform in Chile

We examine the sharp expansion in availability of the emergency contraceptive pill in Chile following legalized access through municipal public health care centers. We study the period 2002–2016 and a broad rollout of the emergency contraceptive pill occurring between 2008 and 2011. By combining a number of administrative data sets on health outcomes and pharmaceutical use, and using event-study and difference-in-differences methods, we document that this expansion improved certain classes of women's reproductive health outcomes, notably reducing rates of abortion-related morbidity. These improvements were greater in areas of the country where the rollout of the emergency contraceptive pill was more extensive. We also document some evidence that refusal to provide the emergency contraceptive pill upon a women's request was linked with a worsening in reproductive health outcomes. These results point to the importance of contraceptive access as a determinant of women's reproductive health and well-being and relates to a growing body of work documenting the importance of women's autonomy as a determinant of health.

Midwives and Dukun Beranak, the Choices for Handling Childbirth

Since the colonial era, there have been attempts to provide clinical childbirth services by establishing midwifery schools. Although these schools were closed, reorganized then re-opened several times, in an effort to graduate native midwives in the colony. The majority of the European doctors believed the existence of native midwives could reduce mortality rates for difficult deliveries. The colonial government also tried to replace dukun beranak (local midwives) with graduate midwives, as many doctors considered dukun beranak practices unsafe and unhygienic. Of note, even though midwifery school graduates provided childbirth services, most of the population preferred to use dukun beranak. This situation continued until independence. Dukun beranak remained the preferred provider of assistance among the working and lower class. The continued popularity of the dukun beranak can be seen as a colonial failure to replace them. After the proclamation of Indonesian independence, midwives who supported the Indonesian Republic, still provided childbearing assistance although with limited infrastructure and inadequate personnel during the independence war. Midwives also founded a midwifes association, rebuilt the national midwifery system, and discontinued colonial elements. This transformation can be interpreted as the decolonisation of midwifery. Midwives and dukun beranak were the available options for assisting in the labour of an Indonesian woman. The Indonesian government had a different approach to the colonial government toward society and dukun beranak and built cooperation between midwives and the dukun beranak. The cooperative work among midwives and dukun beranak changed awareness of Indonesian women’s reproductive health matters. This article traces efforts to provide safer childbirth services by looking at the problem through the lens of midwives and dukun beranak relations. The evolution of this relationship shows the decolonisation process inside midwifery and childbearing services.

Casualties of the World War II metaphor: women’s reproductive health fighting for narrative inclusion in COVID-19

While the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, politicians and media outlets in the USA have compared the pandemic with World War II (WWII). Though women’s reproductive health has been affected by both COVID-19 and WWII, these specific health needs are not included in either event’s mainstream narrative. This article explores the pandemic’s war metaphor through the lens of women’s reproductive health, arguing for a reframing of the metaphor. Narrative-building determines how health needs are perceived and addressed. A modification of the WWII metaphor can ensure that the narrative formulating around COVID-19 is inclusive of the women’s reproductive health needs that are eminently present.