Dr Thana de Campos-Rudinsky, a research associate of the Von Hügel Institute since 2014, directed the seminar 'Ethics of Care and Motherhood: Towards a Public Policy' on 6 October, 2023. It took place at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and was also attended by the Dr Vittorio Montemaggi, director of the VHI.
The keynote was given by Dr Edna Adan Ismail [photo], the 2023 Templeton Prize winner, and a nurse-midwife, hospital founder, and health care advocate. Her work has combated female circumcision and fought for the protection of women and unborn children, incorporating care ethics to reduce maternal mortality in Somalia, East Africa.
Dr Thana de Campos-Rudinsky and her research team followed with the results of their project 'Lonely Mothers, Loving Institutions: Towards a Culture of Love and Encounter in the Maternities of Chilean Hospitals and Clinics'. They introduced "The Ethics of Love": a moral framework designed to evaluate hospitals and clinics based on the quality of care they offer to mothers and newborns. The team presented their proposed scorecard that incorporates love and flourishing indicators to rank institutions within, and possibly beyond, Chile.
This research was done in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame (USA) and funded by the Luksic Foundation to examine Chilean healthcare for mothers during the perinatal period, and whether/how they are promoting a culture of love and encounter that specifically addresses the problem of loneliness in early motherhood.
Photo Credit: Tim Cole.
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