Collaborative approaches using traditional and nontraditional providers of women's health care in the Philippines

Unequal distribution of professional health personnel and scarce resources plague third world countries. The means by which this two‐pronged problem is tackled vary from country to country.

The Philippines, however, should not suffer from this same problem because there are more than enough health professionals graduating every year. Government priorities however, preclude the opening of more jobs for the rural areas, leading to the out‐migration and depletion in the hinterlands. In order to remedy this imperfection, lay women are trained to help solve some of the major problems in health. Full‐time outreach workers, barrio supply point officers, and school teachers are recruited to decrease high fertility and population growth. Nutrition scholars work on the problem of rampant malnutrition especially among children and pregnant and lactating women, while general morbidity is tackled by volunteer health workers. Pharmacy aides dispense the most essential drugs. All these are lay women, but the academe take it upon themselves to innovate teaching strategies to train these volunteers at minimal cost.

Some progress has been achieved. What has been planned as stopgap measures may yet prove to be solutions in the long run. Filipino women are demonstrating that they themselves can solve the problems that beset them and their families.     

Role of women as a motivative and collective force in international development

Women in third‐world countries understand feminism in terms of the right to live in dignity, to organize against military repression and militarization, and to mobilize energies through an understanding and acknowledgment of women's own achievements and strengths. Women play, or have the potential to play, a key role in decision making and implementation within the areas of food and water security, environmental protection, energy saving, health, population, and the improvement of the level of education.     

Framing the ethical issues in new reproductive technologies

The framework presented introduces a series of polarities for thinking about the new questions raised by new technologies. The first example is the question of long‐term responsibility for actions as opposed to the survival strategy of focusing on immediate outcome; second, equality as a value as over against comparative justice. Finally, the question of whether there can be limits to the desire for knowledge. If one can frame the limits of a problem and eliminate the spurious issues, an arena can then be provided for considered discussion.     

Sexual intercourse and pregnancy

Coitus during pregnancy is a crucial factor in the health maintenance of pregnant women. Fifty‐two women were surveyed regarding the information they received concerning sexual intercourse during and following pregnancy. This study showed that, overall, health professionals were not providing information to pregnant women about sexual intercourse and pregnancy. The health professionals who provided sexual information to pregnant women were shown to be inadequate in their efforts. Nurses need to take a more active role in the education of women and their partners about coitus during pregnancy and postpartum.     

Women in power: New leadership in the health industry

The health industry may be the prototype for changing gender roles among managers. Already women dominate mid‐level management positions. Meager data exist on senior health executives. In this exploratory study we examine the professional experiences of nationally prominent women leaders in Washington, D.C., who have recently been at the forefront of changing national health policy. Their career development, management styles, and influence in national health policy are discussed and analyzed. The leadership style of these women differs from the traditional male style, and they experienced role conflicts in their rise to power. The women in this study may be foreshadowing the roles of new leaders in the health industry in the 1990s.     

Folk images of health and menstrual patterns among Newfoundland outport women

Blood is a key concept used to describe various somatic states among women of all ages in a Newfoundland fishing village. Notions of blood are not quaint survivals of folk traditions but are constantly formulated in response to daily occurrences of idiomatic and villagewide events. By grafting new information onto existing cognitive frameworks, villagers have created new and malignant medical myths that are unconsciously perpetrated by local health professionals. The failure of recent local hypertension education campaigns and dramatic increases in hysterectomy and tubal ligation rates can be related to local conceptions of the importance of menstrual blood as an indicator of a diverse range of health states. This article describes how increased availability of medical services and partial assimilation of public health education information has impeded rather than enhanced informed decision making and responsible health consumerism.     

Induced abortion: Reported and observed practice in Taiwan

This study reports the result of a 1980 survey obtained from a nonrandom sample of 500 Chinese women in Taiwan. A total of 46.6% (223) of the respondents admitted that they had obtained at least one induced abortion for birth control purposes in their lifetime.

The following questions are explored and discussed in relation to the women's abortion experiences: prior contraceptive use, repeated abortion, decision to seek abortion, attitudes toward sexual activity and marriage, gestational age at termination of pregnancy, fear of complication, guilt after abortion, and comparison of abortion and pregnancy experiences.