World Health Day

About World Health Day

World Health Day is a global awareness campaign that is celebrated annually on the 7th of April. The primary focus is to draw attention to a range of pressing and detrimental health problems and issues that affect individuals from all across the globe. It also actively promotes and calls for individuals and communities worldwide to devote a significant degree of focus toward public health and health-related challenges, and for institutions and governments to tackle these as a priority. Every year, a specific health issue of concern or illness will be a primary focal point that World Health Day will address and aim to raise awareness of. The specific theme and focus of each year can be, for example, a highly transmittable disease, barriers to sufficient healthcare access, environmental health and mental health challenges in today’s world.

This year’s theme and focus…

This year’s campaign for World Health Day is titled ‘Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures’ and solely focuses on pushing governments and healthcare institutions to try to put a stop to preventable newborn and maternal fatalities, as well as prioritising and devoting a significant focus toward the reproductive health, long term general health and wellbeing of women overall. For women and families across the world, the importance of adequate and high-quality care being in a place that caters for their physical and emotional health during the early and late stages of pregnancy as well as the post-partum stage cannot be emphasised enough. Current published estimates by the World Health Organisation suggest that approximately 300,000 women lose their lives due to pregnancy-related complications or during childbirth every year. It is also reported that close to two million babies die during the first month of their lives each year with two million more being a stillbirth.

 

With these terrifying and stark statistics in mind, the World Health Organisation intends to put out a variety of helpful information to promote healthy pregnancies and reproductivity, as well as better postnatal health and healthcare as well. Our Napier libraries also have a range of resources available regarding women’s reproductive health and general wellbeing, as well as women’s health during pregnancy and pregnancy-related care before, during and after childbirth.

Our School of Health and Social Care, Nursing and Midwifery

Edinburgh Napier hosts one of the largest schools of Health and Social care in the country and is recognised as one of the biggest providers of nursing and midwifery education as well. It has an excellent reputation which is recognised throughout the UK and beyond, and it’s midwifery course allows it’s student community to gain first-hand clinical experience and practice in midwifery in a range of healthcare settings. They are also taught and supported by lecturers with a high level of expertise in both current research and first-hand clinical practice. This ultimately means that many of our midwifery graduates leave us having acquired a wide range of clinical skills and knowledge which equips them to effectively support, advise and advocate for women and their families throughout each stage of pregnancy and childbirth.

Our Napier libraries also have a wealth of resources and textbooks on Midwifery and healthcare which are primarily located in our Sighthill campus library. The literature available encompasses a range of unique experiences which each individual women can have throughout their pregnancy journey and ultimately helps to support the research and clinical skills development and progression of our midwifery student community with a wealth of high-quality information and sources.

How Our Libraries Can Support Midwifery Students

All of the print and electronic resources that we have can be found and requested through LibrarySearch. As well as a wealth of material on current research regarding midwifery and reproductive healthcare, we also have a variety of resources in our research collection about the art and skill of conducting healthcare and midwifery research including how to write a literature review, for example. We also have subscriptions to a vast number of healthcare databases which include healthcare and allied health journals with the most current and up-to-date research on various health topics, including midwifery and women’s reproductive and general health. MA Healthcare Complete is one of the databases mentioned in our LibGuide which includes some leading titles in midwifery research. Another database where coverage of midwifery research is mentioned is Ovid Emcare, which is ran by Elsevier and covers all areas of nursing specialities and healthcare. Furthermore, the likehood of the other healthcare databases listed in our Libguide having resources with current research on midwifery and women’s reproductive and general health is pretty high as well!

 Some Recommendations from the Library

As well as our ever-popular Mayes Midwifery textbooks and PROMPT Practical Obstetric Multi-Professional Training Course manual (3rd edition), we have a wide variety of other resources covering midwifery research as well as women’s reproductive and general health and wellbeing. These recommendations can be found below.

By Rachel Downie