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Women's Health and Social Change (Critical Studies in Health and Society)
by Ellen AnnandaleShortlisted for the BSA Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize 2009 Traditional distinctions between the experiences of women and men are breaking down and being reconfigured in new, more complex ways. The long-established life expectancy gap between men and women appears to be closing in many affluent societies. Many men appear to be far more ‘body and health conscious’ than they ever were in the past and there are perceptible changes in women’s ‘health behaviours’, such as increases in cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. Ellen Annandale provides a comprehensive and persuasive analysis of the contemporary social relations of gender and women’s health, arguing that the once all important sex/gender distinction fosters an undue separation between the social and the biological whereas it is their interaction and flexibility that is important in the production of health and illness. New theoretical tools are needed in a world where the meaning and lived experience of biological sex and of social gender, as well as the connections between them, are far more fluid. This book takes a step forward, outlining what an adequate feminist analysis of women’s health might look like. Women’s Health and Social Change will be of interest to academics and students working in sociology, women’s studies, gender studies, social medicine, social policy, nursing and midwifery.
Women's Health and the Limits of Law: Domestic and International Perspectives (Routledge Research in Human Rights Law)
by Irehobhude O. IyiohaDespite some significant advances in the creation and protection of rights affecting women’s health, these do not always translate into actual health benefits for women. This collection asks: 'What is an effective law and what influences law’s effectiveness or ineffectiveness? What dynamics, elements, and conditions come together to limit law’s capacity to achieve instrumental goals for women’s health and the advancement of women’s health rights?' The book presents an integrated, co-referential and sustained critical discussion of the normative and constitutive reasons for law’s limited effectiveness in the field of women’s health. It offers comprehensive and cohesive explanatory accounts of law’s limits and for the first time in the field, introduces a distinction between formal and substantive effectiveness of laws. Its approach is trans-systemic, multi-jurisdictional and comparative, with a focus on six countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa and international human rights case law based on matters arising from Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Peru and Bolivia. The book will be a valuable resource for educators, students, lawyers, rights advocates and policymakers working in women’s health, socio-legal studies, human rights, feminist legal studies, and legal philosophy more broadly.
Women's Health and the World's Cities (The City in the Twenty-First Century)
by Eugenie L. Birch Susan M. Wachter Afaf Ibrahim MeleisGrowing urbanization affects women and men in fundamentally different ways, but the relationship between gender and city environments has been ignored or misunderstood. Women and men play different roles, frequent different public areas, and face different health risks. Women suffer disproportionately from disease, injury, and violence because their access to resources is often more limited than that of their male counterparts. Yet, when women are healthy and safe, so are their families and communities. Urban policy makers and public health professionals need to understand how conditions in densely populated places can help or harm the well-being of women in order to serve this large segment of humanity.Women's Health and the World's Cities illuminates the intersection of gender, health, and urban environments. This collection of essays examines the impact of urban living on the physical and psychological states of women and girls in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the United States. Urban planners, scholars, medical practitioners, and activists present original research and compelling ideas. They consider the specific needs of subpopulations of urban women and evaluate strategies for designing spaces, services, and infrastructure in ways that promote women's health. Women's Health and the World's Cities provides urban planners and public health care providers with on-the-ground examples of projects and policies that have changed women's lives for the better.
Women's Health in Africa: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities
by Chimaraoke O. Izugbara, Eleanor Krassen Covan and Elizabeth Fugate-WhitlockThis edited book includes new policy-relevant research on women’s health issues in Africa. Scholars explore critical topics from different disciplinary traditions using a variety of research methodologies and data sources. The contributors include African scholars with in-depth knowledge of their home contexts, who can furnish nuanced interpretations of local health issues and trends; international researchers who bring vigorous comparative viewpoints; emerging scholars adding to scientific knowledge; and more established researchers with a deep global knowledge of women’s health issues. The range of women’s health issues is vast, including the HIV epidemic and its impacts; domestic violence; the persistence of homebirths; and abortion. In addition, the book investigates emerging health concerns such as CVDs and cancers. Readers will learn that, while old health issues have persisted and assumed new dimensions, newer concerns have materialized and are gaining momentum. The inability of health systems to tackle these issues complicates matters in Africa, creating a sense of desperation that can only be successfully confronted through strong political will and strategic planning, grounded in further research. This book was originally published as several special issues of Health Care for Women International.
Women's Health in Autoimmune Diseases
by Shefali Khanna SharmaThis book focuses on conveying autoimmune disease expertise to gynecologists and other clinicians, allowing them to approach the treatment of each disease in a pragmatic manner. Each chapter reviews the current literature on treatments for autoimmune diseases, especially under special circumstances like pregnancy; rating disease severity; and providing practical guidelines based on the current state of knowledge. How autoimmune diseases affect fertility, and how to best prepare patients with these diseases for pregnancy, is also addressed. Unfortunately the current literature does not provide effective guidelines. This book addresses that shortcoming, and will help clinicians to implement appropriate treatments, while also outlining possible alternatives in order to provide effective treatment for women living with autoimmune diseases. It also explores important issues concerning autoimmune diseases in women such as: lupus nephritis, vasculitis, Sjogren’s syndrome, anti phospholipid syndrome and systemic sclerosis, and their potential effects on unborn children. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable reference guide for Practicing Clinicians, Rheumatologists and Gynecologists, among others.
Women's Health in IBD: The Spectrum of Care from Birth to Adulthood
by Sunanda V. Kane Bincy P. Abraham Kerri L. GlassnerA comprehensive guide, Women’s Health in IBD: The Spectrum of Care From Birth to Adulthood will help providers approach the specific issues that women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) face throughout their lifetimes. This book will better equip providers to counsel and support women of all ages with IBD.In Women's Health in IBD, Drs. Bincy P. Abraham, Sunanda V. Kane, and Kerri L. Glassner focus on the unique aspects of care for women with IBD. Half of the IBD patient population is female. As we understand more about gender and sex differences in terms of genetics, physiology, and medical care, it is important to consider these factors between men and women to personalize their care.This book encompasses the entire life span of the female IBD patient through birth, adolescence, pregnancy, menopause, and older adult years. Each chapter includes discussions of medications, treatment plans, and common questions or controversies on important topics in IBD such as: Transitioning from pediatric to adult care Diet and nutrition Mental health Health maintenance Family planning Pregnancy and breastfeeding Menopause Concomitant irritable bowel syndrome Women’s Health in IBD: The Spectrum of Care From Birth to Adulthood is an essential text that will help anyone who treats women with IBD, offering practical tools and takeaways for point of care and beyond.
Women's Health on the Internet
by Janet M CogganShare the results of 45 years of front-line medical research!This valuable book covers varied organ pathology in a wide range of syndromes induced by viral infection and toxin exposure. Enteroviral and Toxin Mediated Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Other Organ Pathologies discusses such lethal problems as cardiomyopathy, liver failure, pancreatic cancer, brain tumors, and renal disease, as well as the debilitating disorders of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and other post-viral syndromes. This essential text is profusely illustrated with photographs, photomicrographs, charts, EKGs, X-rays, and graphic depictions of other medical test results.With case studies of individual patients and whole families, Enteroviral and Toxin Mediated Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Other Organ Pathologies brings you the benefit of seeing the patients and their illnesses in the context of their lifestyles, work histories, and family medical history. Not a retrospective survey using medical records alone, this unique book is the result of Dr. Richardson's more than 45 years doing research with the prestigious Newcastle Research Group while engaged in General Family Practice. The scope of this book includes: the complex relationship between host and virus the aftereffects of viral illnesses on various systems, including the cardiovascular, nervous, and endocrine discussions of varied effects of viral syndromes on different family members consideration of viral effects on mother and fetus during pregnancy ideas for treatment and further researchEnteroviral and Toxin Mediated Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Other Organ Pathologies provides both powerful case studies and exciting theoretical considerations based on research. It is an essential tool for family physicians as well as researchers into post-viral syndromes and the effects of toxin exposure.
Women's Health: Medical Masterclass Questions and Explanatory Answers, Pt. 1 (Radcliffe Ser.)
by Sarah Bekaert Phil BrightThis is a highly practical symptom-based manual of common women's conditions. The patient-centred approach provides invaluable guidance on diagnosis, treatment and further investigation. Conditions are grouped as menstrual, hormonal, sexual, breast, urinary, pregnancy, or weight related, and within these areas each symptom is listed alphabetically for ease of reference. A helpful summary of each condition is included where possible to provide an overview, in non-technical language, for the patient. Concise and easy-to read, it is the ideal ready reference for any busy healthcare professional, especially doctors and nurses in primary care hospital emergency departments. 'Despite brilliant advances in science, women's health needs are still mainly focused around their unique reproductive role: contraception, unplanned pregnancy, pregnancy, infertility, the loss of fertility, body image and self esteem. I wanted to bring together information that could be used across these and other areas where women seek health advice: general practice, accident and emergency, etc. in a simple quick reference format.' - Sarah Bekaert, in the Introduction.
Women's Imaging
by Richard C. Semelka Haydee Ojeda-Fournier Dragana Djilas Mohamed El-Azzazi Michele A. BrownWomen's Imaging: MRI with Multimodality Correlation is the latest volume in the growing Wiley-Blackwell radiology series Current Clinical Imaging, edited by Richard Semelka, MD. It is first book available anywhere that offers a concise and richly illustrated overview of the whole topic of women's imaging with primary emphasis on MR imaging. Specifically, the book covers MR imaging techniques, imaging strategies for women's health, normal anatomy of the pelvis and breast, and various disease processes and their imaging appearances. Practical image interpretation is emphasized throughout the book, making clear use of tables and checklists for reviewing images, and offering careful examination of differential diagnoses and special notes on key learning points. Special emphasis is given to MRI - which is widely regarded as the newest, most complex, least well understood, and often most definitive imaging modality available to those who practice women's imaging - but correlations to other imaging modalities such as X-ray, CT scan, and ultrasound are frequently provided.
Women's Mental Health Across the Lifespan: Challenges, Vulnerabilities, and Strengths (Clinical Topics in Psychology and Psychiatry)
by Kathleen A. Kendall-Tackett Lesia M. RuglassWomen’s Mental Health Across the Lifespan examines women’s mental health from a developmental perspective, looking at key stressors and strengths from adolescence to old age. Chapters focus in detail on specific stressors and challenges that can impact women’s mental health, such as trauma, addictions, and mood and anxiety disorders. This book also examines racial and ethnic disparities in women’s physical and mental health, mental health of sexual minorities and women with disabilities, and women in the military, and includes valuable suggestions for putting knowledge into practice.
Women's Mental Health: A Clinical and Evidence-Based Guide
by Joel Rennó Jr. Gislene Valadares Amaury Cantilino Jeronimo Mendes-Ribeiro Renan Rocha Antonio Geraldo da SilvaThere is an increasing focus on medical studies related to differences between men and women, and women’s mental health stands out as one of the most important fields where sex-based differences are being investigated. Overall, studies show an existence of important sex-specific differences in several aspects of psychiatric disorders such as etiology, epidemiology, clinical presentation and therapeutics. In this book, recognized experts present the current state of knowledge on this topic, providing a reliable, accurate and comprehensive clinical guide to women's mental health. The book will steer clear of an in-depth discussion of genetics and sex-based differences to focus quickly and narrowly on how best to diagnose and treat psychiatric disorders in women, thereby offering a targeted and practical guide for clinicians. It is intended to serve a broad audience -- including psychiatrists, psychologists, family physicians, obstetricians, gynecologists, nurses, social workers and other medical and mental health providers with an interest in women's mental health. Women's Mental Health: A Clinical and Evidence-Based Guide will be fully evidence-based and will present chapters authored by distinguished leaders with extensive experience and clinical wisdom in this area. It offers psychiatrists, psychologists, family physicians, obstetricians, gynecologists, nurses, social workers and other medical and mental health providers a valuable source of information to enhance their clinical practice.
Women's Mood Disorders: A Clinician’s Guide to Perinatal Psychiatry
by Elizabeth CoxThis text provides background on the history of perinatal psychiatry, and discusses future directions in the field. It clearly defines perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs), which are the most common complication of pregnancy. When left untreated, PMADs are morbid and devastating for both the patient and their entire family. It reviews gold standard recommendations for the treatment of PMADs, including evidence-based psychotherapies, as well as risk-benefit analysis of psychotropic medication use in pregnancy and lactation. Additionally, common presentations of depression, anxiety, and trauma in pregnancy and postpartum women, as well as mania, psychosis, suicidal and homicidal thoughts are reviewed. Women’s Mood Disorders: A Clinician’s Guide to Perinatal Psychiatry highlights special considerations in pregnancy, including teenage pregnancies, hyperemesis gravidum, eating disorders, substance abuse disorders, as well as infertility, miscarriage and loss. The text concludes with outlining the importance of collaborative care in providing gold standard treatment of perinatal women and review documentation and legal considerations. This handbook will help educate and train future psychiatrists and OBGYNs in feeling confident and comfortable assessing and treating pregnant women who suffer from PMADs.
Women's Moods: What Every Woman Must Know About Hormones, the Brain, and Emotional Health
by Deborah Sichel Jeanne Watson DriscollDiscusses the ways menstruation and pregnancy affect mood disorders in women.
Women's Qigong for Health and Longevity: A Practical Guide for Women Forty and Older
by Deborah DavisHere is a detailed, easy-to-use guidebook for women forty and older on how to use gentle but powerful traditional Chinese exercises, breathing techniques, massage, meditation, and vocalizations to promote health, fitness, relaxation, and mental clarity; improve stamina; and even treat specific health concerns. Acupuncturist and longtime qigong practitioner Deborah Davis explains the traditional Chinese approach to health and the various components of qigong practice; gives general health routines for women in specific age groups; and offers do-it-yourself practices and routines for specific health issues including insomnia, hypertension and heart disease, menopause, sexual vitality, breast health, breast cancer, osteoporosis, and depression.To learn more about the author, visit her website: www.womensqigong.com.
Women's Reproductive Mental Health Across the Lifespan
by Diana Lynn Barnes"In this book you'll find a thoughtfully edited chronicle of the unique convergence of genetic, hormonal, social, and environmental forces that influence a woman's mental health over the course of her life. Both comprehensive and nuanced, Women's Reproductive Mental Health Across the Lifespan captures the science, clinical observation, and collective wisdom of experts in the field. Professionals and laypersons alike are well-advised to make room on their bookshelves for this one!"-Margaret Howard, Ph. D. , Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Women & Infants Hospital, Providence RI"This outstanding collection of work is an important, timely, and much needed resource. Dr. Diana Lynn Barnes has been instrumental in bringing attention to the needs of perinatal women for decades. In Women's Reproductive Health Across the Lifespan, she brilliantly unites the medical world of reproductive life events with the psychiatric and psychological world of mental health issues associated with them. Her expertise, combined with contributions by distinguished leaders in the field, create a volume of work that should be studied carefully by every medical and mental health provider who works with women. "-Karen Kleiman, MSW, The Postpartum Stress Center, Author of Therapy and the Postpartum Woman"Finally, a book that addresses the entire scope of women's reproductive mental health spanning the gamut from puberty to menopause. The list of chapter contributors reads like a who's who of international experts. Unique to this book is its focus on the interaction of genetics, hormonal fluctuations, and the social environment. It is a must addition for the libraries of clinicians and researchers in women's reproductive mental health". -Cheryl Tatano Beck, DNSc, CNM, FAAN, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, School of Nursing, University of ConnecticutPregnancy and childbirth are generally viewed as joyous occasions. Yet for numerous women, these events instead bring anxiety, depression, and emotional distress. Increased interest in risk reduction and early clinical intervention is bringing reproductive issues to the forefront of women's mental health. The scope of Women's Reproductive Mental Health across the Lifespan begins long before the childbearing years, and continues well after those years have ended. Empirical findings, case examples, and dispatches from emerging areas of the field illuminate representative issues across the continuum of women's lives with the goal of more effective care benefitting women and their families. Chapter authors discuss advances in areas such as fertility treatment and contraception, and present current thinking on the psychological impact of pregnancy loss, menopause, cancer, and other stressors. These expert contributors emphasize the connections between an individual's biology and psychology and cultural expectations in shaping women's mental health, and the balance between a client's unique history and current clinical knowledge clinicians need to address disorders. Included in the coverage:-The experience of puberty and emotional wellbeing. -Body image issues and eating disorders in the childbearing years. -Risk assessment and screening during pregnancy. -Normal and pathological postpartum anxiety. -Mood disorders and the transition to menopause. -The evolution of reproductive psychiatry. A reference with an extended shelf life, Women's Reproductive Mental Health across the Lifespan enhances the work of researchers and practitioners in social work, clinical psychology, and psychiatry, and has potential relevance to all health care professionals.
Women's Spirituality, Women's Lives
by Ellen Cole Judith OchshornThis enlightening book examines how the feminist spirituality movement contributes to the establishment of new paradigms of mental health for women. Women’s Spirituality, Women’s Lives examines possible psychotherapeutic implications for women engaged in feminist spirituality and stimulates much-needed conversation between feminist therapists and feminist theologians/ritualists. Feminist spirituality is part of the current broad challenge to accepted ways of knowing and being. This book argues that as women tell their own stories, they create rituals that enable them to feel a sense of control over the future and to move toward a kind of authority, agency, and autonomy associated with mental health and psychological well-being. Women from many cultural backgrounds and religious perspectives have embraced alternative forms of spiritual expression, based on profound theoretical challenges to mainstream religious beliefs, ranging from calls for the radical reclamation and reconstruction of religious traditions to personal involvement in goddess worship and Wicca. Women’s Spirituality, Women’s Lives presents theoretical, conceptual, and experiential chapters that analyze the extent to which these proliferating women’s groups represent the beginnings of new norms of mental health for women.Women’s Spirituality, Women’s Lives presents a variety of voices, including Native American, Christian, Jewish, and Wiccan. Chapters are divided into three sections--Laying the Groundwork, Theoretical Challenges, and Living It Out--and explore a diverse array of topics such as: the “shouting” church and Black women’s mental health a traditionalist Native American challenge to New Age cooptation a feminist group and Jewish women’s self-identity lesbian altar-making and mental health feminist Wicca in the U.S. and Germany the martial arts and women’s mental health the use of feminist rituals in therapy and as therapyFeminist therapists and theologians, as well as other individuals interested in feminist spirituality or alternative spirituality, will find this book a fascinating exploration of the various aspects of the spirituality of women. Women’s Spirituality, Women’s Lives is also an excellent reader to expand the thinking of students in classes in women’s studies and religious studies.
Women's Stories of Divorce at Childbirth: When the Baby Rocks the Cradle (Haworth Marriage And The Family Ser.)
by Hilary HogeExplore the reasons that new families break up!This landmark book examines the causes and consequences of divorce occurring during pregnancy or within a year of childbirth. Women’s Stories of Divorce at Childbirth: When the Baby Rocks the Cradle draws from the experiences of seventeen women who suffered this especially traumatic form of family breakup. Using ideas gleaned from psychoanalytic theory, academic psychology, attachment theory, sociology, trauma studies, and infant development research, Dr. Hoge examines the personal, familial, and social significance of these stories of personal betrayal and heartbreak.The women’s narratives show in stark detail how the transition to parenthood can become a personal crisis for some new fathers and mothers, one that may prompt them to run away, search out extramarital affairs, or lapse into addictions. Women’s Stories of Divorce at Childbirth also explores the short- and long-term effects of the resulting trauma, grief, and anger felt by the spouse left holding the baby. Because the women’s stories are discussed throughout the book, they become more than random cases chosen to illustrate a single point. Women’s Stories of Divorce at Childbirth discusses the important issues of early divorce, including: parenthood as transition and transformation emotional ramifications of extreme-condition divorces economic consequences of divorce at childbirth the lasting emotional reactions of infants and childrenWomen’s Stories of Divorce at Childbirth is a powerful, insightful examination of a potentially devastating problem. This well-written book will become a uniquely valuable resource to counselors and mental health professionals, couples having difficulty with the transition to parenthood, new parents who are considering divorce, and survivors of divorce at childbirth.
Women's Vascular Health
by Iain Greer Jeff Ginsberg Charles ForbesThis book brings together specialist authors from a variety of medical disciplines to give comprehensive coverage of the whole spectrum of women's vascular health. Covering coronary artery disease and its precursors, venous disease, thrombophilic defects, hormonal therapy and haemorrhagic problems, the content is divided into three sections. Sectio
Women, Children, and Addiction
by Loretta P. Finnegan Stephen R. KandallThis proposed book draws on the expertise of 35 experts in the field of Addiction Medicine to provide the reader with a current and comprehensive view of addiction as related to women, pregnancy, newborns, infants and children. The volume begins by placing current attitudes towards addicted women in a historical context, and continues with contributions on the relationship of gender to substance abuse research, addiction as a general health issue in women, and ethical dilemmas faced when approaching drug use during pregnancy.The volume discusses high-risk pregnancies and HIV infection related to maternal drug abuse. It details specific pharmacotherapy such as methadone and buprenorphine, and assesses society’s punitive view toward illicit drug using women. Finally, the book describes outcomes of newborns, infants and children born following intrauterine drug exposure.Health providers in many related disciplines, specialists in Addiction Medicine, social workers and ethicists are among those who will gain insight into the complex interdisciplinary matrix of abuse in women, its unique relationship to pregnancy, and its impact on drug-exposed children.This book was published as a special issue in the Journal of Addictive Diseases.
Women, Disability and Mental Distress
by Julia L.T. SmithOver recent decades an increasing amount of attention has been paid to identifying and meeting the individual support needs of mental health service users and people with physical impairments in the UK. Evidence of this can be seen within the literature that considers mental health and physical impairment from a wide range of perspectives, as well as the increased range of service provision for individuals within both categories. However, the support needs of individuals who fall into both categories have largely been overlooked by social care and health service providers, practitioners, and organisations for whom the main focus is either mental health or physical impairment. The lack of attention that has been given in theory and in practice to the mental health support needs of disabled women who experience mental distress has resulted in an insufficient knowledge base of how to support disabled women who may require some form of mental health support. For this group of women this has meant that their needs have arguably continued to be neglected and subsequently left unmet. Writing from her position as both a social worker and a service user, Julia Smith has written an innovative and important text which both discusses a neglected area of personal experience and makes an original contribution to knowledge with regard to both policy and practice.
Women, Employment and Organizations
by Judith Glover Gill KirtonThis book brings together the latest European and North American research on a series of key topics in the field of women's employment. Drawing on published and easily accessible statistics, it sets the topics in the appropriate policy contexts and systematically appraises them from the viewpoint of the challenges for the management of human resources. The book explores: occupational segregation the pay gap work-life balance part-time working women, work and pensions women in professional occupations equality and diversity management women and trade unions. This is a highly useful book suitable for a wide range of courses including business studies, sociology, social policy and gender studies.
Women, Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything
by Geneen RothThe bestselling author of "When Food Is Love" helps overeaters find the underlying reasons for using food as an emotional buffer. Roth also provides seven basic guidelines for eating and other therapeutic self-help tools.
Women, Food, And Hormones: A 4-Week Plan to Achieve Hormonal Balance, Lose Weight, and Feel Like Yourself Again
by Sara GottfriedNew York Times best-selling author Dr. Sara Gottfried shares a new, female-friendly Keto diet that addresses women&’s unique hormonal needs, so readers can shed pounds and maintain the loss more easily. Most diet plans were created by men for men, but women&’s bodies don&’t work the same way. Popular programs can actually make it harder for women to lose weight, because they can wreak havoc on a woman&’s complex and delicate hormonal system. New York Times best-selling author Dr. Sara Gottfried has spent her career demystifying hormones and helping patients improve their health more broadly with personalized medicine. In Women, Food, and Hormones, Dr. Gottfried presents a groundbreaking new plan that helps women balance their hormones so they can lose excess weight and feel better. Featuring hormonal detoxification combined with a ketogenic diet that is tailor-made for women, coupled with an intermittent fasting protocol and over 50 delicious and filling recipes, this book shares a fat-burning solution that gets results.
Women, Migration, and Conflict: Breaking a Deadly Cycle
by John Tirman Susan Forbes MartinAn estimated 35 million people worldwide are displaced by conflict, and most of them are women and children. During their time away from their homes and communities, these women and their children are subjected to a horrifying array of misfortune, including privations of every kind, sexual assaults, disease, imprisonment, unwanted pregnancies, severe psychological trauma, and, upon return or resettlement, social disapproval and isolation. Written by the world's leading scholars and practitioners, this unique collection brings these problems - and potential solutions - into sharp focus. Based on extensive field research and a broad knowledge of other studies of the challenges facing women who are forced from their homes and homelands by conflict, this book offers in-depth understanding and problem-solving ideas. Derived from a project to advise U.N. agencies, it speaks to a broad array of students, scholars, NGOs, policymakers, government officials, and international organizations.
Women, Motherhood and Living with HIV/AIDS: A Cross-Cultural Perspective
by Pranee LiamputtongThere are about 34 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS. Half are women. There has been a dramatic global increase in the rates of women living with HIV/AIDS. Among young women, especially in developing countries, infection rates are rapidly increasing. Many of these women are also mothers with young infants. When a woman is labeled as having HIV, she is treated with suspicion and her morality is being questioned. Previous research has suggested that women living with HIV/AIDS can be affected by delay in diagnosis, inferior access to health care services, internalized stigma and a poor utilization of health services. This makes it extremely difficult for women to take care of their own health needs. Women are also reluctant to disclose their HIV-positive status as they fear this may result in physical feelings of shame, social ostracism, violence, or expulsion from home. Women living with HIV/AIDS who are also mothers carry a particularly heavy burden of being HIV-infected. This unique book attempts to put together results from empirical research and focuses on issues relevant to women, motherhood and living with HIV/AIDS which have occurred to individual women in different parts of the globe. The book comprises chapters written by researchers who carry out their projects in different parts of the world, and each chapter contains empirical information based on real life situations. This can be used as evidence for health care providers to implement socially and culturally appropriate services to assist individuals and groups who are living with HIV/AIDS in many societies. The book is of interest to scholars and students in the domains of anthropology, sociology, social work, nursing, public health & medicine and health professionals who have a specific interest in issues concerning women who are mothers and living with HIV/AIDS from cross-cultural perspective.