Role of medical toxicology educational programs in improvement of the maternal health

Mothers’ health and lives are constantly exposed to different risks such as accidents, injuries, and poisoning, so some mothers may lose their health and lives, which is understood as a social damage. Various studies have found that in vulnerable groups of the society, women of childbearing age are the most susceptible group to suicide following self-poisoning (۱, ۲). Acute intentional poisoning is a major public health problem in all societies and is a common reason for patients referring to clinics or hospitals. Suicidal self-poisoning and morbidity or mortality of the victims impose irreversible harms to the society. Especially, a large percentage of the victims ask for help because they regret after committing suicide, thus they will not commit suicide after recovery (۳). Although this is a serious health problem, most of the hospitals have faced a lack of facilities to admit and treat the poisoned patients. Moreover, the poisoned patients may be treated tastefully since there is lack of referral or reference hospitals to support these patients. Despite the presence of forensic and medical toxicology specialists - one of the medical specialties in Iran - in many of the academic centers, most of the university departments do not have equipped independent toxicology centers (۴). In addition, according to the current curriculum of the medical schools, Clinical Toxicology Courses are missing in the medical training (۵). So, control and treatment of poisoning is absent in our health care system.