Maternal care vs. economic wealth and the health of newborns: Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic and Kansas City, USA

This paper focuses on a narrow aspect of the demographic and health crisis in the former Soviet Union, examining the extent to which maternal behavior can compensate for poverty and poor medical conditions. Using sister hospital data form Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Kansas City, USA covering nearly 1,50...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:World development 1998-11, Vol.26 (11), p.2057-2072
Main Authors: Becker, Charles M., Bibosunova, Damira I., Holmes, Grace E., Ibragimova, Margarita M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Babies
Breast-feeding
Child health
Comparative analysis
Demographics
Demography
Health
Health care
Infant mortality
Medical care
Motherhood
Poverty
Regression analysis
Socioeconomic factors
Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper focuses on a narrow aspect of the demographic and health crisis in the former Soviet Union, examining the extent to which maternal behavior can compensate for poverty and poor medical conditions. Using sister hospital data form Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Kansas City, USA covering nearly 1,500 live births, the paper finds that Kyrgyzstani women are partially successful in compensating by taking better care of themselves and their newborn children. Moreover, ethnicity within Kyrgyzstan has no apparent impact on maternal behavior. Careful behavior, however, does not remove all disadvantages, and targeted interventions are still greatly needed.
ISSN:0305-750X
1873-5991
DOI:10.1016/S0305-750X(98)00093-X