Women’s Health Revision – Learning Outcomes 1 and 2

 

 

Task 1

 

Working in pairs, discuss definitions and criticisms of the following and write your answers on the flip charts provided:

 

q                  World Health Organisation concept of health

q                  Western Scientific (Medical) concept of health

 

 

 

Task 2

 

Read the following case study and answer the questions below. Write your own answers and then discuss in small groups:

 

Mary is 18 years old, of Irish Catholic descent and a student on an HNC Business Administration course at her local college. She has been in a relationship with her boyfriend, Kevin, aged 21, for a year. Kevin works in a call centre and comes from a Protestant background. His family weren’t particularly happy about him seeing Mary at first, but she gets on well with his sister. Mary drinks moderately, mostly at weekends, as does Kevin. Neither of them smoke. Mary lives at home with her parents on a Barratt estate in the East End of Glasgow. Kevin lives with his mother and sister in a flat in Dennistoun.

 

Mary recently found out that she was pregnant after missing her period. She hasn’t told Kevin yet and is worried about his reaction; she isn’t sure whether she wants to go through with the pregnancy, and her parents are going to hit the roof when they find out. She wants to go to university but knows that having a baby may mean her plans have to go on hold. She has told her best friend, but no one else. None of her friends have children and she feels that she doesn’t know what to do or where to turn.

 

 

  1. Identify and explain three factors that may affect Mary’s health

 

 

  1. Explain how Mary’s experience of pregnancy may differ from that of her mother’s or grandmother’s generation.

 

 

  1. What is meant by ‘medicalisation’ in terms of women’s reproductive health? Give one advantage and one disadvantage of medicalisation.