SEATTLE, Washington — The World Health Organization (WHO) released new guidelines, along with those already existing, on self-care interventions for global sexual and reproductive health in 2019. The WHO’s updated guidelines address the absence of information on sexual and reproductive self-care in the global medical field. For example, sexual and reproductive self-care interventions include techniques and resources for delivery and newborn care, family planning services and sexually transmitted infections.
Active participation in personal health care develops agency and empowerment for individuals in low-resource communities. Developing nations often face decreased access to health care facilities, medical testing services and sexual and reproductive education, making it hard for their population to stay healthy, especially when it comes to sexual and reproductive health. Self-care provides impoverished individuals with access to sexual and reproductive self-testing, management, and awareness.
Holistic Self-Care
The WHO’s self-care guidelines place ethics, gender equality and human rights at the forefront of self-intervention techniques. The WHO observes the following definition of self-care:
“Self-care is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent diseases, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health-care provider.”
The sexual and reproductive self-care guidelines cover sexual functions and systems. The guidelines also cover sexual relationships and reproductive methods and processes. In addition to physical and mental health, holistic self-care focuses on the cultural, environmental and economic factors that contribute to an individual’s wellbeing. Moreover, holistic sexual and reproductive self-care recognizes health rights like affordable access to non-discriminatory health services.
Sexual and Reproductive Health in Developing Nations
Self-care intervention is essential in developing nations where individuals often have low-autonomy over sexual and reproductive decision-making. The benefits of self-care in developing countries include:
- Increased access to quality health care
- Reduced stigma surrounding sexual and reproductive health
- Improved human and reproductive rights
- Efficient use of health care services
- Increased access to affordable health care
These benefits are important in developing countries to keep the population healthy by keeping diseases and infections low. Some of the most prominent infections include those that are transmitted through sex. Approximately one million people across the world acquire a sexually transmitted infection each day.
Sexually transmitted infections disproportionately affect women and children. This is because STIs are often due to birth complications such as infertility and mother-to-child transmission. STIs also increase the risk of HIV, a sexually transmitted disease prevalent in impoverished areas like sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to STIs, infant mortality rates (IMR) are significantly higher in developing countries, with the highest IMR at 9% in the Central Republic of Africa.
Establishing an Enabling Environment
Although the WHO’s guidelines on sexual and reproductive self-care target health workers, researchers and policy-makers, self-care intervention requires support from all levels of a community to facilitate safe and quality access to health care. The WHO recommends that health care professionals prioritize outreach within local communities to provide resources on options and availability.
Some factors that can affect self-care intervention in developing nations include access to education and justice, level of economic stability, the prevalence of sexual violence and availability of health care resources. Therefore, the WHO suggests using the “local context” to implement the sexual and reproductive health guidelines. In other words, it suggests considering a community’s current health care services and economic standing before intervening. Developing countries will benefit the most from sexual and reproductive self-care interventions by increased access to affordable, quality and non-discriminatory health care.
– Madeline Zuzevich
Photo: Flickr