Grandmothers as gatekeepers? The role of grandmothers in influencing health-seeking for mothers and newborns in rural northern Ghana
Grandmothers as gatekeepers? The role of grandmothers in influencing health-seeking for mothers and newborns in rural northern Ghana
复制标题
DOI：
10.1080/17441692.2014.1002413
复制
发表时间：
2015-10-21
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Moyer, Cheryl A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gupta, Mira L.;Aborigo, Raymond Akawire;Moyer, Cheryl A.
以前的研究表明，在加纳北方农村，寻求保健往往由妇女的丈夫或复合头支配。本研究旨在探讨祖母（通常是女性的岳母）在影响孕产妇和新生儿医疗保健决策中的作用。对35名新生儿母亲、8名传统助产士和当地治疗师、16名社区领导人和13名保健医生进行了深入访谈。另外还与户主、大院领导人和祖母等利益攸关方举行了18个重点小组会议。在这个地区，祖母扮演着许多角色。它们可以作为孕妇的主要支助提供者，在分娩后照顾新生儿，保护文化传统，并作为地方医学知识的宝库。祖母也可以充当寻求健康行为的守门人，特别是对女儿和儿媳。这项研究还揭示了健康教育运动，目标是母亲作为自主决策者之间的潜在差距，以及一个更集体主义的社区结构，其中母亲很少作出这样的决定，没有其他社区成员的支持的现实。
Previous research suggests that care-seeking in rural northern Ghana is often governed by a woman's husband or compound head. This study was designed to explore the role grandmothers (typically a woman's mother-in-law) play in influencing maternal and newborn healthcare decisions. In-depth interviews were conducted with 35 mothers of newborns, 8 traditional birth attendants and local healers, 16 community leaders and 13 healthcare practitioners. An additional 18 focus groups were conducted with stakeholders such as household heads, compound leaders and grandmothers. In this region, grandmothers play many roles. They may act as primary support providers to pregnant mothers, care for newborns following delivery, preserve cultural traditions and serve as repositories of knowledge on local medicine. Grandmothers may also serve as gatekeepers for health-seeking behaviour, especially with regard to their daughters and daughters-in-law. This research also sheds light on the potential gap between health education campaigns that target mothers as autonomous decision-makers, and the reality of a more collectivist community structure in which mothers rarely make such decisions without the support of other community members.