This book examines the impact of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on national and international jurisprudence, since its adoption in 1989. It offers state of the art knowledge on the functions, challenges and limitations of the CRC in domestic, regional and international children's rights litigation. Litigating the Rights of the Child provides insight in the role of the CRC in domestic jurisprudence in ten countries from different parts of the world, with civil law, common law and Islamic law systems. In addition, it offers analyses of the jurisprudence of regional courts, in Europe and the Americas, and of human rights treaty bodies, including the Human Rights Committee, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. This book presents a global and comparative picture on the use of the CRC in litigation and identifies emerging trends. This book serves as an important source of reference and inspiration for academics, students, legal professionals, including judges and lawyers, and (inter)national organisations working in the area of children's rights.

This volume provides an overview of the research describing the effects of child maltreatment on mental health, cognitive and social-emotional development. It offers descriptions of selected empirically based treatments (EBTs) written by scholars associated with its development, training, or research on its effectiveness. Each contributor presents the theoretical foundation of the EBT and evidence of its efficacy, describes the treatment process and illustrates this process with a case study of its use with a maltreated child, and discusses possible limitations. Following the chapters describing the interventions, the editors address key issues of the dissemination and implementation of these EBTs. They describe the strategies the selected interventions have used to ensure treatment fidelity in training and dissemination from the perspective of implementation science's core components of implementation. The challenges of implementing EBTs, and the difficulty of fitting protocol to the reality of clinical practice in community mental health settings are also discussed. This volume offers a central source of information for students and practitioners who are seeking effective interventions to address problems associated with child maltreatment.

This book presents new findings that deal with different facets of the well-being of children and their relevance to the proper treatment of children. The well-being of children is considered against the background of a wide variety of legal, political, medical, educational and familial perspectives. The book addresses diverse issues from a range of disciplinary perspectives using a variety of methods. It has three major sections with the essays in each section loosely organized about a common general theme. The first section focuses on issues concerning the relation between children’s well-being and autonomy or agency. The second section deals with child well-being insofar as the limits of parental authority are concerned. The third section has a more applied orientation and addresses a variety of public policy controversies involving the interpretation of children’s well-being.

This book presents both theoretical contributions and empirical applications of advanced statistical techniques including geo-additive models that link individual measures with area variables to account for spatial correlation; multilevel models that address the issue of clustering within family and household; multi-process models that account for interdependencies over life-course events and non-random utilization of health services; and flexible parametric alternatives to existing intensity models. These analytical techniques are illustrated mainly through modeling maternal and child health in the African context, using data from demographic and health surveys.   In the past, the estimation of levels, trends and differentials in demographic and health outcomes in developing countries was heavily reliant on indirect methods that were devised to suit limited or deficient data. In recent decades, world-wide surveys like the World Fertility Survey and its successor, the Demographic and Health Survey have played an important role in filling the gap in survey data from developing countries. Such modern demographic and health surveys enable investigators to make in-depth analyses that guide policy intervention strategies, and such analyses require the modern and advanced statistical techniques covered in this book.   The text is ideally suited for academics, professionals, and decision makers in the social and health sciences, as well as others with an interest in statistical modelling, demographic and health surveys. Scientists and students in applied statistics, epidemiology, medicine, social and behavioural sciences will find it of value.   

Authored by Bengt Kallen, professor emeritus in embryology at Lund University in Sweden. The subject of this book is to describe the occurrence of congenital malformations among children born and what risk factors exist. Population data are presented for a number of malformations, ascertained with the use of data from the Swedish national health registers for the period 1998-2010 corresponding to some 1.3 million births, together with prospectively collected information on a group of exposures of possible interest. The structure of the analysis is such that it excludes studies of, for instance, nutrition, alcohol or street drug use and many other lifestyle factors where prospective information or independent register information is difficult or impossible to obtain. Epidemiology of Human Congenital Malformations culminates with a discussion on how the presence of malformations can be explained and various possibilities for the prevention of birth defects. Moreover, it will include a series of instructions on how to read epidemiological literature in this field making it an essential resource both for those currently working in the field of reproductive epidemiology or those intending to enter it. It will additionally be useful for doctors working with malformations, either as obstetricians, neonatologists or pediatricians.

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally and presents a major challenge to policy makers and clinicians alike. Recent research has suggested that obesity has its origins in early life and that early diet can programme a developing fetus' and young infant's future susceptibility to obesity. This volume contains recent findings presented at the International Conference on Early Nutrition Programming and Health Outcomes in Later Life: Obesity and Beyond - a satellite meeting of the 15th European Congress on Obesity, held in Budapest in April 2007. Basic scientific research, data from epidemiological studies and clinical trial results were all presented during the programme. This volume includes articles discussing the evidence for an effect of early nutrition programming on later obesity and cardiovascular risk; the growing evidence for an intergenerational cycle of obesity; the role of maternal leptin in programming appetite; possible cellular mechanisms for altered energy balance, including mitochondrial programming and the effects of regulators of metabolism; and how epigenetic changes might be the fundamental underlying mechanism explaining programming effects. Consumer understanding of the concept of early nutrition programming and the extent to which early nutrition programming is taken into account in infant feeding policies are also discussed.

This stimulating volume addresses vital questions about gene/environment interactions as they affect cell health from the prenatal period through later life. Beginning with a tour of epigenetic processes in the human body, the book assembles current theoretical and empirical developments across the discipline, among them transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, the effects of maternal nutrition on epigenetic change, and possible links between epigenetics and childhood obesity. Public health and policy aspects of the field are discussed in depth, with the understanding that much can be done to improve our epigenetic health as a species. And in this vein, contributors consider future possibilities, such as the reprogramming of genes to reverse cancer and other diseases. Included in the coverage: The role of environmental epigenetics in perinatal and neonatal development The epigenetic biomarker H2AX: from bench science to clinical trials What's the risk? Dental amalgam, mercury exposure, and human health risks throughout the lifespan Post-traumatic stress disorder: neurological, genetic, and epigenetic bases Children's exposure to alcohol, tobacco, and drugs: long-term outcomes Ethical implications of epigenetics Epigenetics, the Environment, and Children's Health Across Lifespans brings real-world knowledge and applications of this increasingly important field to public health practitioners, maternal and child health researchers, and environmental health experts.

Managing social relationships for childless couples in pro-natalist societies can be a difficult art to master, and may even become an issue of belonging for both men and women. With ethnographic research gathered from two IVF clinics and in two villages in northwestern Turkey, this book explores infertility and assisted reproductive technologies within a secular Muslim population. Goeknar investigates the experience of infertility through various perspectives, such as the importance of having a child for women, the mediating role of religion, the power dynamics in same-gender relationships, and the impact of manhood ideologies on the decision for - or against - having IVF.

They are laborers, soldiers, refugees, and orphans. In areas of the world torn by poverty, disease, and war, millions of children are invisible victims, deprived of home, family, and basic human rights. Their chances for a stable adult life are extremely slim. The powerful interdisciplinary volume Vulnerable Children brings a global child-rights perspective to the lives of indigenous, refugee, and minority children in and from crisis-prone regions. Focusing on self-determination, education, security, health, and related issues, an international panel of scholars examines the structural and political sources of children's vulnerabilities and their effects on development. The book analyzes intervention programs currently in place and identifies challenges that must be met at both the community and larger policy levels. These chapters also go a long way to explain the often-blurred line between vulnerability and resilience. Included in the coverage: Dilemmas of rights-based approaches to child well-being in an African cultural context. Poverty and minority children's education in the U.S.: case study of a Sudanese refugee family. The heterogeneity of young children's experiences in Kenya and Brazil. A world tour of interventions for children of a parent with a psychiatric illness. An exploration of fosterage of Owambo orphans in Namibia. UNICEF in Colombia: defending and nurturing childhood in media, public, and policy discourses. Vulnerable Children is a must-have volume for researchers, graduate students, and clinicians/professionals/practitioners across a range of fields, including child and school psychology, social work, maternal and child health, developmental psychology, anthropology, sociology, social policy, and public health.

In the later stages of gestation, fetal functions undergo increasing change and development, preparing the fetus for the transition to its postnatal environment. Rapid maturation is witnessed in breathing, swallowing, sensory functions, sleep, and many other processes, with corresponding behavioral changes. By 35 to 40 weeks of gestation, fetuses are capable of living ex utero without support, but it is increasingly appreciated that even infants born at between 35 and 36 weeks can suffer long-term consequences. This book, which complements the author's previous volume on development of normal fetal movements during the first 25 weeks of gestation, discusses in detail the full range of behavioral phenomena observed during the final 15 weeks of gestation, with careful analysis of their mutual relationships. A key feature is the outstanding photographic material, difficult to obtain at this late stage, and the instructive graphs that are also included. The information provided will alert clinicians to deviations from the norm and to physiologic phenomena that can turn pathologic in infants born prematurely.

Multiauthored book dealing comprehensively with the various aspects of imaging of pediatric musculoskeletal trauma. The work is subdivided in three main sections: Overview of lesions; Imaging of traumatic injuries according to body region; typical traumatic injuries of early infancy. The third section includes also legal aspects of child abuse (battered child) and will indicate current international medical-legal guidelines. The didactical approach and the wide-ranging account of the subject makes the book particularly valuable to practitioners from various disciplines, involved in diagnosis and management of trauma of pediatric bone and joint

Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I is a widely expressed growth factor with diverse effects on many tissues throughout development and in adult life. The purpose of this work is to provide detailed and updated information on the role of the growth hormone (GH)-IGF axis in fetal and postnatal development, as well as its physiological functions and implications in pathology.

There are 62 million women of childbearing age in the United States, 85% of whom will give birth by age 44. One third of women enter pregnancy with a chronic medical illness and 50% are overweight or obese. Only 55% will have obtained preventive health services in any given year, and 17 million women do not have health insurance. The need for an educated provider community to care for these patients is enormous. Medical Management of the Pregnant Patient fills the need for a practical handbook that addresses the clinical care of pregnant patients. The content is protocol-based and uses algorithms to discuss preconception care, care during pregnancy, labor and delivery and how to link postpartum care with ongoing primary care. A brief overview of physiology, its impact on pregnancy and diagnostic and treatment recommendations are included. Each section covers both diseases that may exist independent of pregnancy and diseases unique to pregnancy. Additionally, symptom-based complaints are incorporated into each section and cross-referenced appropriately.

An estimated 35 million people worldwide are displaced by conflict, and most of them are women and children. During their time away from their homes and communities, these women and their children are subjected to a horrifying array of misfortune, including privations of every kind, sexual assaults, disease, imprisonment, unwanted pregnancies, severe psychological trauma, and, upon return or resettlement, social disapproval and isolation. Written by the world's leading scholars and practitioners, this unique collection brings these problems - and potential solutions - into sharp focus. Based on extensive field research and a broad knowledge of other studies of the challenges facing women who are forced from their homes and homelands by conflict, this book offers in-depth understanding and problem-solving ideas. Derived from a project to advise U.N. agencies, it speaks to a broad array of students, scholars, NGOs, policymakers, government officials, and international organizations.

Technological developments in the life sciences confront us with new facets of a Faustian seduction. Are we "playing God" more and more, as claimed by critical authors of modernity? Achievements in genetic research produce ethical dilemmas which need to be the subject of reflection and debate in modern societies. Denial of ambivalences that ethical dilemmas arouse constitutes a threat to societies as well as to individuals. The book presents a compilation of some of the results of the interdisciplinary European study "Ethical Dilemmas Due to Prenatal and Genetic Diagnostics" (EDIG), which investigated some of these dilemmas in detail in a field which is particularly challenging: prenatal diagnosis. When results from prenatal diagnosis show fetal abnormalities, women and their partners are confronted with ethical dilemmas regarding: the right to know and the right not to know; decision-making about the remainder of the pregnancy and the desire for a healthy child; responsibility for the unborn child, for its well-being and possible suffering; life and death. This book provides answers from an ethical, psychoanalytical and medical viewpoint.

This book presents new findings that deal with different facets of the well-being of children and their relevance to the proper treatment of children. The well-being of children is considered against the background of a wide variety of legal, political, medical, educational and familial perspectives. The book addresses diverse issues from a range of disciplinary perspectives using a variety of methods. It has three major sections with the essays in each section loosely organized about a common general theme. The first section focuses on issues concerning the relation between children's well-being and autonomy or agency. The second section deals with child well-being insofar as the limits of parental authority are concerned. The third section has a more applied orientation and addresses a variety of public policy controversies involving the interpretation of children's well-being.

This book examines the impact of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on national and international jurisprudence, since its adoption in 1989. It offers state of the art knowledge on the functions, challenges and limitations of the CRC in domestic, regional and international children's rights litigation. Litigating the Rights of the Child provides insight in the role of the CRC in domestic jurisprudence in ten countries from different parts of the world, with civil law, common law and Islamic law systems. In addition, it offers analyses of the jurisprudence of regional courts, in Europe and the Americas, and of human rights treaty bodies, including the Human Rights Committee, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. This book presents a global and comparative picture on the use of the CRC in litigation and identifies emerging trends. This book serves as an important source of reference and inspiration for academics, students, legal professionals, including judges and lawyers, and (inter)national organisations working in the area of children's rights.

In order to bridge the lack of information on child labour and to stimulate policy interventions the IREWOC Foundation (International Research on Working Children) has undertaken action-based research in the field of the worst forms of child labour in Latin America. In 2006 and 2007 a comparative study on the Worst Forms of Child Labour was carried out in 7 different economic sectors in Bolivia, Guatemala and Peru focussing on the hazardous worst forms. The central research objectives were as follows: * to map the working and living situations of children who are working in specific economic sectors and what the consequences of this work are for their physical and emotional wellbeing. * to investigate the reasons why these children are working in these worst forms sectors. The research results were expected to give important insights into the currently polarised debate between those who state child labour is above all related to cultural considerations and those who state that economic reasons are fundamental to the phenomena of child labour. * to map the existing policy initiatives for child labourers in the worst forms and to identify the best practices. In the face of challenges imposed by achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the UN, specific attention was paid to educational initiatives. Is education a useful tool in combating child labour, and vice versa, is child labour a significant obstacle to achieving universal primary education? Although the evidence from the various cases discussed in the book illustrate positive trends in terms of the worst forms of child labor, thousands of children were still found to be engaged in activities that form a direct threat to their physical, mental and moral health and jeopardize their education. This book proposes several practical recommendations for possible interventions.

In 1998, the Foundation for Child Development (FCD) provided Kenneth Land a grant to explore the feasibility of producing the first national composite index of the status of American children that would chart changes in their well-being over time. Important questions needed to be answered: was it possible to trace trends in child and youth well-being over several decades? Could such an index provide a way of determining whether the United States was making progress in improving its children's lives? The Index of Child and Youth Well-Being (CWI) was born from these questions. Viewing the CWI trends from 1975 to present, there is evidence that the well-being of American children lags behind other Western nations. As conditions change, it is clear that the index is an evolving and rich enterprise. This volume attests to that evolution, and what the CWI promises for understanding the progress - or lack of progress - in enhancing the life prospects of all American children.

A dramatic and worldwide increase is occurring in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in women of childbearing age. Obese women carry a significant excess risk of a variety of serious complications during pregnancy, and in addition, maternal obesity predisposes to obesity in the offspring. This book provides a timely update on the latest knowledge on maternal obesity and pregnancy. A very wide range of issues are covered, including macrosomia and associated shoulder dystocia; the risk of miscarriage, malformations, and complications of pregnancy; the impact of hyperglycemia; clinical management; consequences for anesthesia and ultrasound; impacts on breastfeeding, fertility, and childhood obesity; and pregnancy following gastric surgery. All of the authors are recognized experts in their fields, and the book has been designed to meet the practical needs of obstetricians, gynecologists, internists, and general practitioners.

The first of its kind, this book describes pediatric palliative care in more than 23 countries. Each region in the world is covered and countries included are both resource poor and rich. Authors are multidisciplinary and regarded nationally and internationally in their field. Clinicians, advocates, policymakers, funders, and researchers will learn how programs were developed and implemented in each country. Authors describe children for whom pediatric palliative care is needed and provided for in their country. When applicable, a brief history of pediatric palliative care is included noting especially policy changes and legislative acts. For example, the chapter on Poland describes how pediatric palliative care grew from the Catholic church into a national movement spearheaded by several health care workers. The Pole national spirit that brought them through a change in political regime has also been a driving force in the pediatric palliative care movement. The chapter on South Africa, for example, illustrates how a resource poor country has been able to leverage philanthropic and government funding tomake its dream of having an infrastructure of pediatric palliative care a reality. These are just a few examples of the inspiring stories that are included in this book. Readers from countries who wish to start a pediatric palliative care program, or advance an existing program, will learn valuable lessons from others who have faced similar barriers. Introduction and concluding chapters highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the modern pediatric palliative care movement."

This volume provides an overview of the research describing the effects of child maltreatment on mental health, cognitive and social-emotional development. It offers descriptions of selected empirically based treatments (EBTs) written by scholars associated with its development, training, or research on its effectiveness. Each contributor presents the theoretical foundation of the EBT and evidence of its efficacy, describes the treatment process and illustrates this process with a case study of its use with a maltreated child, and discusses possible limitations. Following the chapters describing the interventions, the editors address key issues of the dissemination and implementation of these EBTs. They describe the strategies the selected interventions have used to ensure treatment fidelity in training and dissemination from the perspective of implementation science's core components of implementation. The challenges of implementing EBTs, and the difficulty of fitting protocol to the reality of clinical practice in community mental health settings are also discussed. This volume offers a central source of information for students and practitioners who are seeking effective interventions to address problems associated with child maltreatment.

Obesity During Pregnancy in Clinical Practice highlights the medical evidence on obesity in the postpartum and interconception period, arming clinicians with the knowledge necessary to communicate with their patients on the effect of these changes on diabetes, cardio vascular disease and certain cancers. Obesity During Pregnancy in Clinical Practice provides concise and understandable summaries of the evidence-based, theory-driven lifestyle interventions that have been shown to be effective for weight loss and modifying the risk of developing diabetes and obesity.

This book explores the broad view on child well-being and the quality of life research. It starts with a discussion of the origin of the social indicator movement and a review of literature on the concepts of quality of life, (subjective) well-being and resilience. It then discusses the force of culture on child development, and shows how two prototypical environments favor either the independent or interdependent self-model. After an exploration of the shifts and changes in the child well-being indicator movement and trends of child well-being measurements, the book turns to research on Tsunami-affected children. The first part of the study gives these children and their caregivers a voice, formulating in their words what constitutes child well-being for them in the given circumstances. The concepts provided are processed in detail, contrasted, and then made into indicators. The second part of the study describes the introduction of a child well-being index based on these indicators. The book ends with four main conclusions reflected in a theoretical model of contextualized child well-being indicators.

Perinatal Depression among Spanish-Speaking and Latin American Women A Global Perspective on Detection and Treatment Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo and Katherine Leah Wisner, editors As more is known about postpartum depression, the more it is recognized as a global phenomenon. Yet despite the large numbers, information about this condition as experienced by Spanish speaking women and Latinas has not always been easy to come by. Perinatal Depression among Spanish-Speaking and Latin American Women focuses on four diverse Latina populations (Mexico, Chile, Spain, and U.S.) to analyze key similarities and differences within this large and wide-ranging group. This first-of-its-kind reference reviews current research on the topic, including prevalence, screening methods, interventions, and--of particular salience for this population--barriers to care. Findings on psychoeducation, assessment tools, and cognitive-behavioral and other forms of therapy provide important insights into best practices, and continuity of care. And psychosocial, cultural, and linguistic considerations in working with Latinas are described in depth for added clinical usefulness. This landmark volume: Outlines characteristics of Spanish-speaking women and Latinas screened for postpartum depression Introduces the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, English and Spanish versions, and reviews their use with Latina women Compares postpartum depression and health behaviors in Spanish and Latina immigrant mothers Offers streamlined assessment-to-intervention models Provides two in-depth case studies illustrating cultural factors influencing the treatment of Latinas with perinatal depression. Presents an instructive firsthand account of postpartum depression. Between its thorough coverage of the issues and its innovative clinical ideas, Perinatal Depression among Spanish-Speaking and Latin American Women has a wealth of information of interest to researchers and practitioners in maternal and child health, obstetrics/gynecology, mental health, and women's health.