Maternal and Child Health During Forced Displacement

Abstract

Purpose: To discuss the effects of forced displacement on maternal and child health, highlight the major pitfalls in delivering humanitarian services to this vulnerable group, and underscore the need for multilayered interventions to improve health, protect rights, and reduce vulnerabilities during forced displacements.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search was undertaken from databases including Medline, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, Scopus, and ProQuest. No restrictions were placed on geographical region, type, and year of publication. The key words used were displacement, children, women, health, challenges, disaster response, emergency medicine, terrorism, maladjustment, morbidity, disaster response, cultural sensitivity, and interventions.

Conclusions: Forced displacement negatively affects maternal and child health. The key challenges during forced displacement include food insecurity, lack of shelter, unavailability of clean water and sanitation, poor infrastructure of healthcare services, unavailability of birth attendants and healthcare professionals to manage medical emergencies, inaccessibility to educational and training facilities, and lack of cultural sensitivity of humanitarian workers. The ultimate outcome of forced displacement is a sudden rise in maternal and child mortality and morbidity, maladjustment, psychological issues, altered familial roles, displaced parenting, and vulnerability to exploitation. In view of Bronfenbrenner's socio-ecological framework, multilayered interventions are proposed to improve maternal and child health during forced displacements.

Clinical relevance: In view of the effects of forced displacement on maternal and child health and considering the major pitfalls in the delivery of humanitarian services to this vulnerable group, the proposed multilayered interventions can improve health, protect rights, and reduce vulnerabilities surrounding maternal and child health during forced displacements.

Keywords: Challenges; children; disaster response; displacement; emergency medicine; health; mothers; terrorism; vulnerabilities.