Effects of Forced Displacement on Maternal and Child Health

Background: Geopolitical issues like natural disasters, armed conflicts, violence, inequality, and violation of human rights not only adversely affect the progress and prosperity of a nation but also result in forced displacement among vulnerable populations. During forced displacement, the population at risk is forced to flee from their geographical area and seek refuge either in their own country as an internally displaced person, maintain a refugee status in another country, or seek an asylum outside their country without maintaining a refugee status. Although forced displacement intends to save lives, preserve well-being and recover the affected population, the potential and actual population health risks associated with it cannot be ignored. Jeopardized maternal and child health is one of the serious repercussions of displacement that results in an unexpected rise in mortality and morbidity among women and young children.

Purpose: This paper identifies the effects of forced displacement on maternal and child health and major pitfalls surrounding the delivery of humanitarian services to this vulnerable group, as well as underscores the need of multi-layered interventions to improve health, protect rights and reduce vulnerabilities surrounding maternal and child health during forced displacements.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search was undertaken from the databases including, MEDLINE, CINAHL, EBSCOHOST, Google Scholar, Scopus, and ProQuest without placing any restriction to a geographical region of the published literature, type of study, type of literature and year of publication. The keywords used were: displacement, child, women, health, challenges, maladjustment, morbidity, cultural sensitivity, and interventions.

Findings: Forced displacement negatively affects maternal and child health. The key challenges during forced displacement include, food insecurity, lack of shelter, non-availability of clean water and sanitation, poor infrastructure of healthcare services, non-availability of birth attendants and healthcare professionals to tackle medical emergencies, inaccessibility to educational and training facilities, and lack of cultural sensitivity of humanitarian workers. The ultimate outcome of forced displacement is a sudden rise in maternal and child mortality and morbidity, maladjustment, psychological issues, altered familial roles, displaced parenting, and vulnerability to exploitation.

Recommendations: In view of the effects of forced displacement on maternal and child health and considering the major pitfalls surrounding the delivery of humanitarian services to this vulnerable group, we recommend the need of multi-layered interventions to improve health, protect rights and reduce vulnerabilities surrounding maternal and child health during forced displacements. In view of Bronfenbrenner’s socio-ecological framework (1979), multi-layered interventions are proposed to improve maternal and child health during forced displacements. These interventions include, enhancing resilience and adaptability of the vulnerable population, creating women and child friendly spaces, offering psycho-social supportive measures, offering preventive and curative healthcare services, building safe and healthy infrastructures, and providing gender and culturally sensitive care to promote health of the vulnerable population.