President’s Lecture “Challenges in Reproductive Health Care in the Next Decade”
Kamheang Chaturachinda MD*
Affiliation : * President of The Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Health, as defined by the World Health Organization, is complex covering physical as well as mental,
social and spiritual well being. It has multiple determinants ranging from both internal and external factors.
Reproductive Health is a relatively new concept, conceptualized in the 80’s to regard health of
women in a holistic entity as opposed to Obstetrics and Gynecology that regards health of women narrowly
and negatively, and is concerned only with child birth and the disease aspect of the reproductive system of
women. The holistic entity covers the health of women from the time she was conceived (in utero or in vivo)
through out the various stages of growth, development and maturity to senility and finality. It covers the
women herself and her social environment.
Reproductive Health therefore has many dimensions ranging from maternal and child health at the
beginning of life through growth and development, to the reproductive period of the women and post repro-
ductive health.
The implications for reproductive health care in the women (and her family) from birth to death is
therefore huge. Considerations will have to be given to all the factors that interplay in the provision of
reproductive health care. These factors includes national as well as transnational, the changing socio-
cultural, medical and political context that determine the availability and utility, as well as adequacy, of
resources for the reproductive health care in Thailand.
The challenges for the next decade, for the reproductive health care in Thailand, is therefore how to
provide universal access equitably to the women of Thailand, and keeping the providers of the service con-
tented so that they can provide high quality service. Furthermore, we need to contain the cost of health care
and mitigate the rising litigation climate. This requires a combination of skills, continuous public informa-
tion, professional commitment to education and training, and political will.
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