Maternal health care in natural disasters : A study on the International Federation of the Red Cross’s maternal health care in flooding disaster relief

Abstract: This thesis aims to describe how the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) tends to maternal health care in floodings and whether it should be deemed sufficient. Floodings in Pakistan (2010), Bangladesh (2017) and Sudan (2013) are used as units of analysis when conducting a content analysis. The theoretical framework consists of critical success factors for disaster response based in the emergency management literature. A big part of the theoretical framework revolves around the importance of expertise and rationality in disaster response planning and implementation. The three floodings received relief efforts from IFRC which are presented in emergency appeal reports. Lists on essential maternal health care interventions in combination with the theoretical framework create analysis questions that are posed to the appeals. Results are presented in a table naming the prevalence of each intervention in each report. The findings show that maternal health care was seen to and deemed sufficient in only one of the three cases: Pakistan. The conclusion is that the discourse on maternal health care in natural disasters should be developed and that further research on the subject needs to be conducted.