Abstract
Maternal and Child Health (MCH) is one of the pillars of a country. In order to understand MCH during a disaster, it is necessary to know about the state of public health, sanitary conditions, and living standards in the country. The history of MCH tells us the details. In the period between 1868 and 1944, Japan’s MCH policies dramatically developed facing two major World Wars. In the postwar era (1945–1948), MCH was designated as an important field of public health, under the direction and with the assistance of the General Headquarters of the United States Army (GHQ). The Children and Families Bureau was established in 1947 as part of the Ministry of Health and Welfare responsible for preparing MCH policy including mother and child handbooks. Recently, a new trend in MCH was reviewed based on the statistical analysis of national databases including the national census data. The key findings of the statistics were decreased infant mortality rate (IMR), decreased perinatal mortality rate (PMR), and decreased total fertility rates, while low birth weight babies, intellectually handicapped children, and the number of babies conceived through artificial fertilization therapy have increased.
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Abbreviations
- ICT:
-
Information communication technology
- IMR:
-
Infant mortality rate
- LBW:
-
Low birth weight
- MCH:
-
Maternal and child health
- MMR:
-
Maternal mortality ratios
- PMR:
-
Perinatal mortality rate
- TFR:
-
Total fertility rates
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the following research grants:
1. Health and Labor Sciences Research Grants (Research on Health Security Control) “Research on the Development of a Regional Collaborative Disaster Prevention System Including the Operation of Welfare Shelters for Those Who Require Assistance in Times of Disaster with the Central Focus on Pregnant and Nursing Women and Infants” (Research representative: Honami Yoshida, 2013–2015).
2. Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research “Maternal and Child Health Required in Times of Disaster - from Research on the Impacts of the GEJE on Maternal and Child Health” (Research representative: Honami Yoshida, 2012–2014).
The author thanks Dr. Kentaro Hayashi and others who provided help at the Primary Care for All Team (PCAT), PCOT project members that include Dr. Hiroshi Ota, Dr. Yumie Ikeda, Dr. Keiko Otsuka, Ms. Yukari Endo, and Mw. Shoko So, who have contributed to developing training for rescuing pregnant and nursing women in times of disaster; and Dr. Yosuke Fujioka and Dr. Shinji Tsunawaki who have worked to address the needs of pregnant women from the inception of the PCAT. The author also thanks Mw. Naoko Nakane for her dedicated education in this field.
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Yoshida, H. (2021). Maternal and Child Health History and Public Health System at the Time of Disasters in Japan. In: Lessons Learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake. SpringerBriefs in Population Studies(). Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4391-8_1
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