Search

Background: Respectful maternity care is a crucial part of quality care and is associated with better health outcomes. Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, reports from across the world indicated that infection containment measures were often implemented in ways that resulted in disrespectful care of women during facility-based childbirths in violation of evidence-based practices. This study aimed to explore the associations between childbirth care practices and perceptions of care as satisfactory and respectful among women who delivered in Israeli hospitals during the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional self-administered online survey was conducted to explore women's perceptions of maternity care using an adapted version of the WHO Community Survey Tool for measuring how women are treated during facility-based childbirth. Multivariate logistic regression models evaluated the associations between sociodemographic characteristics, obstetric information, and measurements of childbirth experiences and women's perceptions of receiving respectful and satisfactory care. Results: The responses of 981 women were included in the analysis. While the majority of women perceived the care they received as both respectful (86.54%) and satisfactory (80.22%), almost 3 in 4 women (72.68%) reported experiencing at least one type of disrespectful care. Positive communication with the medical staff and respect for autonomy were associated with a more positive birth experience for women. Women were more likely to perceive their care as respectful if they did not feel ignored (AOR = 40.11;22.87–70.34). Perception of satisfactory care was more likely among women who had the opportunity to discuss preferences with the medical staff (AOR = 10.15; 6.93–14.86). Having Covid-19 procedures explained increased the likelihood of reporting respectful and satisfactory care (AOR = 2.89;1.91–4.36; AOR = 2.83;2.01–4). Conclusion: Understanding which care practices are associated with women's perceptions of care at facility-based births is critical to ensuring quality care. The findings of this study can inform future work and research aimed at enhancing respectful maternity care during times of crisis and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic may impact the development of infants' social communication patterns with their caregivers. The current study examined continuity, stability, and bidirectional associations in maternal and infant dyadic Emotional Availability (EA) before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Participants were 110 Israeli mother‐infant dyads (51% girls) that were assessed prior to (Mage = 3.5 months) and during (Mage = 12.4 months) the pandemic. At both time points, mother‐infant interactions were observed during play (nonstressful context) and tasks designed to elicit infant frustration (stressful context). Maternal and child EA were coded offline. Maternal EA demonstrated no significant mean‐level changes from before to during the COVID‐19 pandemic, whereas infant responsiveness and involvement increased over time. Stability and bidirectional associations in EA differed by context and were evident only in the stressful context. Mothers' perceived levels of social support further moderated these associations. Specifically, infants' pre‐pandemic responsiveness and involvement predicted maternal EA during the pandemic only when mothers reported low levels of social support. Our findings suggest that maternal and child EA were not adversely impacted by the COVID‐19 pandemic. However, patterns of EA demonstrated moderate‐to‐no stability over time, suggesting considerable individual differences in trajectories of EA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses an innovative transnational legal strategy employed by a group of divorced Israeli men as part of their personal and collective battle over child custody. These men submitted lawsuits to courts in the United States under laws intended to offer aliens the opportunity to seek damages caused by severe human rights violations or by the phenomenon of global organized crime. In these lawsuits, the litigants sought damages and restitution from Israeli ministers, judges, and social workers, as well as from charitable funds that support Israeli organizations, for sums of millions of dollars. While the claims are groundless and were eventually dismissed by the judges, the article points to the actual and potential harms that can be caused by such an abuse of transnational human rights litigation and suggests legal mechanisms that can be used to minimize these harms. As such, the article not only strives to contribute to the discussion concerning the abusive strategies employed by some men's groups but also to the evolving debate concerning the needed conditions for a responsible transnational law, operating for the benefit of humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses gendered aspects of Israel's tender years child custody laws, which apply to young children, in light of the emergence of men's activist groups as opponents of feminism. Topics include the notion of mothers as primary caregivers, the media activism of fathers' rights groups, and the response of Israeli feminist organizations to men's rights groups.

The article presents information on the religious tribunals and the family law cases in democratic countries with reference to the rabbinical courts of Israel. The issue of gender inequality can be controlled by maintaining a balance between the liberal norms and legal multiculturalism. The views of liberal advocates Susan Moller Okin, Gad Barzilai and Ayelet Shachar regarding this issue are also presented.

The article explores gendered implications for conversion, children, and citizenship in Israel through the experiences of inter-religious couples living in Israel and the legal framework that hovers over their lives. The study included 28 interviews with 14 inter-religious couples and the analysis of relevant religious and civil laws. The findings uncover the centrality of the decision whether to convert to Judaism and the gendered dimensions of this decision. Non-Jewish female spouses experience stronger pressure to convert than do non-Jewish male spouses. This gendered pressure is explained by the orthodox Jewish religious decree that recognizes a child as a Jew only if its mother is Jewish, and by the Jewish national collective's social and legal adoption of this religious definition of "who is a Jew". 'The gendered dimension of conversion is accompanied by a national dimension, mainly created by the automatic citizenship granted by law to Jews in Israel. The link between religion and nationality also has economic find racial aspects, as evidenced by the variety of circumstances surrounding inter-religious families in Israel. This case study provides a rich example of the tension between a socio-legal regime that tries to preserve its republican collective norms, and the liberal, individualistic, post-national normative reality of families in the global era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the ways notions of fatherhood and motherhood are constructed, negotiated and articulated during divorce proceedings in Israel. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with divorced parents, lawyers, judges and therapeutic professionals, and on a wide sample of divorce court files involving child custody arrangements. The main finding of the study is that while motherhood is ordinarily perceived as a taken-for-granted caring essence, fatherhood is a vague concept that has yet to acquire concrete meaning. Treating the law as an overwhelming arena of conceptual negotiations and practical applications, the study also finds that legal professionals have a significant role in shaping how both women and men grasp and act upon their parental rights and duties. By and large, I find that the impact of legal professionals to that effect, combined with a rather conservative family law system in the shadow of which the parties operate, impedes innovation and discourages men from assuming expansive parental roles after divorce. Hence this study provides a rich example of the contribution of law to the gendered social expectations and coercions determining women and men's ability to shape their parental roles and identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is ample evidence that young children's screen media use has sharply increased since the outbreak of the novel 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, the long-term impact of these changes on children's adjustment is currently unclear. The goals of the current study were to assess longitudinal trajectories of young children's screen media exposure through a series of national COVID-19 home lockdowns and to examine the predictive associations between different aspects of media exposure and post-lockdown behavioral adjustment. Data were collected at four timepoints during and after home lockdown periods in Israel. Longitudinal data measuring various aspects of media use, behavioral conduct and emotional problems were gathered from a sample of 313 Israeli children (54% females) between the ages two to five years (M age at T1 = 3.6), by surveying their mothers at 5 points in time. Child overall screen time use, exposure to background television, use of media to regulate child distress and maternal mobile device use all changed throughout the lockdown periods. Moreover, during lockdowns children's behavior problems were concurrently and positively correlated with screen time, use of media to regulate child distress, and exposure to background television. However, these were not longitudinally related to child behavior problems in the post-lockdown period. Possible implications for family media use during a public health crisis are discussed. • Child screen time and exposure to background TV increased during COVID-19 lockdowns compared with the pre-lockdown period. • Maternal use of media to reduce child distress became less frequent between lockdowns. • During lockdowns, different aspects of media exposure were positively correlated with children's behavior problems. • Aspects of child screen media exposure were not longitudinally associated with children's post-lockdown behavior problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]