Maximizing Benefits to Mothers and Newborn: an Ethical Analysis of Issues in Newborn Health Program Design

This paper highlights on the aspects of bioethics principle of beneficence and equal value of human lives and the concept of distributive justice, mothers and women as seen through the lens of community based newborn health programs in developing countries. The Interagency Group of Safe Motherhood reveals a major reason for what women continue to die from pregnancy related disease is that they are discriminated and that the severe neglect of women’s health is a violation of their human rights. Following the bioethics principle of beneficence and to value the equal worth of human lives and the concept of distributive justice, all women including adolescents and pregnant women in same community must have been focused and addressed through a newborn health program. Even within a context with scarce resources, we need to remember that cost sharing and investment on maternal care, particularly antenatal counseling and delivery assistance, helps increasing newborn survival. Estimated over half of costs of newborn health program needs to be invested in maternal health aspects, to ensure effective successful program implementation to improve newborn survival.