This comprehensive account of the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history examines its devastating effects on West Africa’s most vulnerable populations: pregnant women and children. Noted experts across disciplines assess health care systems’ responses to the epidemic in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, emphasizing key areas such as pregnancy, prenatal services, childbirth, neonatal care, and survivor health among pregnant and non-pregnant women. The 30 chapters hone in on gender-based social issues exacerbated during the outbreak, from violence against women and girls to barriers to female education. At the same time, chapters pinpoint numerous areas for service delivery and policy improvements for more coordinated, effective, and humane actions during future pandemics.
A sampling of the topics:
- Ebola virus disease: perinatal transmission and epidemiology
- Comprehensive clinical care for children with Ebola virus disease
- Maternal and reproductive rights: Ebola and the law in Liberia
- Ebola-related complications for maternal, newborn, and child health service delivery and utilization in Guinea
- The Ebola epidemic halted female genital cutting in Sierra Leone—temporarily
- Maternity care for Ebola at Médecins Sans Frontières centers
- Stigmatization of pregnant women with and without Ebola
- Exclusion of women and infants from Ebola treatment trials
- Role of midwives during the Ebola epidemic
Pregnant in the Time of Ebola is a powerful resource for public health specialists, anthropologists, social scientists, physicians, epidemiologists, nurses, midwives, and governmental and non-governmental agency staff studying the effects of the epidemic on women and children as a result of the most widespread Ebola outbreak to date.