Question

Describe Dr. Lu’s “life-course perspective.” How does it broaden conventional approaches, which focus primarily on risk factors during pregnancy? What are the mechanisms by which experiences outside the body and before conception can affect birth outcomes? Describe how the life-course perspective supports a link between racism and premature birth or low birth-weight babies.

Answer 1

The "Life Course Perspective" of Dr. Lu focuses not only on the prenatal care of black mothers, but it also emphasis on the importance of providing social support, better health care, and economic suport through out the life period of the black women. The first four points of this perspective focuses on " increase access to interconception care, preconception care, quality prenatal care, and healthcare throughout the life course". Thus, these four points emphasis on the health care of African American women throughout their life span. The next four points is focused on the community building and social support for the wellness of the African American women. These four points include " strengthen father involvement, systems integration, reproductive social capital, and community building". The last four points focuses on the social and economic welfare of these women. The last four points are " close the education gap,reduce poverty, support working mother, and undo racism".

The twelve points of this perspective focus on the factors that effects the African American women across their life span, and improving their life would positively effect their health, help them to have access to the healthcare, help them to better look after their children, and to have dignified life free from any racial discrimination.

The trauma of the experiences of racial discrimination that the African American women face at any point of their life stays with them for their life time. It effects the way they react to such situations and their coping techniques to these stressors of life in a negative manner. This makes them more vulnerable to the infections during the sensitive periods of pregnancy compared to their white counterparts. This increases the risk of premature babies or low birth-weight babies for these women. Thus, the racial discrimination that may have happened in the early life, or during their adulthood, or during the pregnancy is linked to premature birth and low birth-weight babies, according to this perspective.