Maternal and child health in Albania

Women in Albania today live in a world very different from that of their parents and grandparents. In an increasingly "westernized" nation, women initially appear to have more autonomy within their families and greater power within society than their traditional ancestors had. From the reports of aid agencies and the former government, it appears that Albanian women's health has also greatly improved in the last half century. However, these reports are based largely on questionable statistics. At the same time, initial impressions based on women's public images can be deceptive. According to Albanian physicians, most of the data produced during the socialist era was falsified to improve the government's image. Furthermore, no comprehensive research projects have examined the multi-faceted nature of pregnancy including both social and physical factors. Albanian clinicians and international aid organizations need accurate indicators of maternal and child health to either corroborate or disprove the reports under discrepancy. The study reported here documents current health conditions for pregnant women and their offspring in Albania. Data for the study were collected in 1993 and 1994 from field sites throughout Albania. A total of 3250 medical charts from 1993 were abstracted from five maternity houses. Interviews were conducted during 1993-1994 with 1199 pregnant women who were followed through their pregnancies. Of these women, 938 were located at delivery. Their infants were weighed and assessed. The data show that infant birth weights, gestational ages and mortality rates are now comparable to the rest of Europe. Maternal disease rates and spontaneous and therapeutic abortion rates are also surprisingly low considering the previous reports. However, fertility rates remain relatively high compared to Western Europe. The results show that despite the degeneration of health services, maternal and child health in Albania is much better than expected and vastly improved over the pre-communist era.