Applied Sciences Journal Assignment
sonia87
casestudy.docxCJ - Dreaming of Becoming of Mother
CJ, 25, has been gaining weight over the last five years and wants to start a family with her spouse and become pregnant with her first child in the next year. CJ met with her doctor and her doctor said that shee needs to incorporate more physical activity into her daily routine. CJ is a medium height person, weighing 200 pounds, and really does not know how to be physically active on her own.
CJ’s experience with physical activity was somewhat limited in variety. 6 months ago, she read that being within a healthy weight range could reduce pregnancy and delivery complications. After that, CJ started walking in her neighborhood for 15 minutes, once a week. CJ would go for walks by herself, sometimes her spouse would join her and she seemed to enjoy that. When CJ was 18, she went to a dance class every week, for 45 minutes and she would see other friends at the class, they were good at the dance class. The dance class was cancelled and CJ moved away and has not danced or done any kind of group physical activity since then.
CJ wants to be more active for the sole reason that she wants to have a healthy pregnancy and reduce the chance for infant or maternal death during delivery. CJ saved $50 dollars to buy anything that will help her be physically active. CJ has access to the Internet, but is not familiar with where to search for good health information regarding physical activity and maternal & child health. CJ is employed but does not have access to an employee health program, instead she receives a monthly newsletter with words of encouragement to be healthy.
CJ generally makes friends easily, but has been isolating due to COVID-19 pandemic. She has expressed wanting to be phsycially active to friends through text messages. Her friends have tried to be supportive and said they would cheer her on if she started some kind of homebased phsycial activity routine. CJ plans to talk to her doctor next week about what kind of exercise is appropriate.
The Problem
Big picture: Heart Disease is the leading cause of death in Arizona. Heart disease consists of many type of issues related to the function. In this case study, we focus on heart health issues related to lifestyle behaviors (eating, exercising, stress reduction, sleep, etc.) 65% (4 million people -enough to fill 66 NFL stadiums), of Arizona adults reported being overweight, 10% reported having diabetes, and 5% reported having heart disease.
Maternal Mortality is the death of women while pregnant or within 42 days of terminiation of pregnancy due to any cause, related to or aggravated by, the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) the top leading causes of maternal deaths in the U.S. are: cardiovascular disease; other non-medical cardiovascular conditions (lifestyle conditions i.e. overweight, shortness of breath, smoking tobacco, substance use, excessive stressful habits), infection, hemorrhages (bleeding) Arizona State Health Assessment, 2019).
Maternal deaths related to childbirth in the U.S. have increase steadily since the CDC began tracking pregnancy related deaths, rising from 7.2 per 100,000 in 1987 to 18.0 in 2014 (CDC Division of Reproductive Health). Another concern related to maternal deaths are the complications that can happen during pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Some effects are mild and some are severe and range from high blood pressure, respiratory distress, amniotic fluid embolism, eclampsia, heart failure during a procedure, severe anesthesia complications, infection, shock, and blood transfusion problems to name a few.
Some of the consequences of the complications include unexpected pregnancy, derlivey, and postpartum complications like bleeding, organ failure, and stroke. The complications not only affect the health of women, but also their fetuses who may suffer low brith weight, premature brith, or death. Severe complications in pregnancy has been slowly increasing in recent year and affected more than 50,000 women, last counted in 2014. It is not clear why sever complications are increasing, but changes in overll health of the population of women giving birth may be contributing to increases in complications.
While maternal mortality in Arizona remains below the national average (20.3 out of 100,000 live births, during 2012-2016, compared to 26.4 nationally), Arizona has also seen increasing rates (ADHS Bureau of Vital Records).
Resources
· https://mchb.hrsa.gov/maternal-child-health-topics
· https://mchb.hrsa.gov/maternal-child-health-topics/maternal-and-womens-health
· https://www.npr.org/series/543928389/lost-mothers
· https://health.gov/sites/default/files/2019-09/Physical_Activity_Guidelines_2nd_edition.pdf
