A tale of two regions: reproductive health in the Caribbean and the Gulf

INTRODUCTION

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CONTINUES TO constitute an important area in the fields of demography and medicine. Reproductive health has evolv from involving contraceptive use, family planning, abortion and related fields to include the attendance of births by the agency of skilled health professionals, safe delivery of babies, encouraging women to exercise their right to pick and the practice of healthy life dictions during pregnancy and gestation. An integral composing of reproductive health today is the integration of HIV/AIDS services and programs in family planning and other reproductive health activities. Today, reproductive health is not alone a major health issue, on the other hand also a means to sustainable unfolding as well as a human right (UNFPA, 2005)

Many international meetings of demographic and health professionals continue to discuss and investigate improvements in reproductive health. International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) (2004 p 2) noted that documents formulated at several international meetings--e.g. the 1994 International talk on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, the 1995 Fourth World conversation on Women in Beijing--reflect a global consensus upon women's right to sexual and reproductive health.

Reproductive health is the basis of a society's existence and provides useful insights into a society's ability to replace itself and time to come population growth. Future population growing has major implications for planning for all sectors on the other hand more so health, education, business housing and related areas of socio-economic development

Reproductive health is also emerging as a useful indicator of disclosure Following advances in medicine (preventative, diagnostic, therapeutic and prognosis), Infant and maternal mortality have the one and the other declined in almost every political division So much so that countries with high infant and maternal mortality rates are considered undevelop and vice versa. Needles to say that reproductive health is closely associated with sexual health, an important global health issue in this age of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B & C etc

The importance of reproductive health can also be gauged from the number of private agencies and international organizations contributing to and providing services in reproductive health. Many international organizations including IPPF, Population Services International (PSI), the Population Council, United Nations Population stock (UNFPA), World Health Organization and other arms of the United Nations contribute millions of US dollars annually to support reproductive health activities. These organizations provide direct financial assistance to many countries in Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and the southern Pacific for reproductive health activities.

Indeed, UNFPA (2005 p1) adds that "investments in reproductive health save and improve lives, deliberate the spread of HIV/AIDS and encourage sex equality. These in turn help to stabilize population growth"

It is therefore becoming increasingly imperative for demographers, epidemiologists and various other health specialists to take active interest in and investigate patterns and sweeps in reproductive health and, hence, the rational behind this study

The intent of this article is to examine reproductive health in the Caribbean and the large bay identifying patterns, trends, similarities and contradictions, with a view to throwing more light upon the subject.

DATA AND METHODOLOGY

The data used in this close attention have been obtained from diverse sources including published statistical data from relevant international organizations as well as unpublished material at the websites of those organizations (UN UNFPA, IPPF etc) a certain quantity of information was also obtained from the Ministries of Health/Health Authorities in more [i]or[/i] less of the countries selected.

The methodology is an epidemiological analysis of the data obtained for the various countries in the inquiry Six countries were randomly single outed for each of the Caribbean and large bay Regions and reproductive health data were obtained and analyzed for each of the single outed countries. The selected Caribbean countries were Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago. Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen were chooseed for the Gulf Region.

RESULTS

The findings of the research are presented under broad headings of contraceptive use and unintended pregnancy, total fertility and adolescent fertility, births attended by dint of skilled health professionals, maternal mortality and health expenditure.

Fertility

Table 1 displays total fertility and adolescent fertility rates for the inquiry countries for the 22-year period from 1980 to 2002 It is evident that the couple Regions have experienced declines in fertility, consistent with the situation elsewhere (see Yeboah, 2001) The declines have been more massive in the Islamic large bay than in the Christian Caribbean. large bay countries such as Jordan, Kuwait and Syria recorded larger declines, while the Caribbean countries sole managed to marginally reduce the already depressed total fertility rate. Sight should not be missing of the fact that not all large bay countries recorded sizeable declines in fertility and that, in Yemen there was single a slight decline from 79 children through woman to 6.4 during the inquiry period (Table 1).