Planificación nacional y establecimiento de normas de higiene maternoinfantil en América Latina : Intergracion de las actividades de higiene y atención médica a un nivel funcional

Abstract

The magnitude and extent of the health problems of mothers and children in Latin America far exceed the resources available to meet them, and from all present indications, the numbers of medical and paramedical personnel will remain inadequate for many years to come. It is therefore important to have norms of service - at the national, regional, and local levels - which will assure the greatest returns for the specific efforts rendered. One of the obstacles to achievement of this objective is the fact that norms of maternal and child hygiene have not been based upon realistic planning techniques nor integrated functionally into a system of comprehensive health care. They have repeated a standardized pattern of service organization and content which derives historically from the urban areas of industrialized countries rather than adapting themselves to local needs, cultural conditions, and the personnel resources and facilities of a comprehensive system of health care. The actions of maternal and child hygiene can be grouped into those which screen for early unrecognized disease, or provide anticipatory guidance and parental education, and those which deliver a dietary supplementation or immunization. All of these actions can be viewed as component parts of programs to prevent or combat the effects of a specific disease. In the context of health planning, manternal and child hygiene can be