Influence of gender roles and rising food prices on poor, pregnant women's eating and food provisioning practices in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Influence of gender roles and rising food prices on poor, pregnant women's eating and food provisioning practices in Dhaka, Bangladesh
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DOI：
10.1186/1742-4755-10-53
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发表时间：
2013-09-26
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Willows, Noreen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Levay, Adrienne V.;Mumtaz, Zubia;Willows, Noreen
背景：孟加拉国的产妇营养不良是一个长期存在的健康问题，是许多复杂因素的产物，包括遵守食物“禁忌”和限制妇女流动和决策的父权制性别秩序。最近的全球粮食价格危机也对贫困孕妇获得粮食产生了负面影响。据信，受食品价格上涨影响最严重的是城市贫民。虽然在孟加拉国有大量以孕产妇营养和粮食不安全衡量为中心的有用定量研究，但缺乏对最脆弱的城市超贫困人口如何经历粮食不安全的理解。特别是，在这种情况下，人们对孕妇粮食不安全的实际经历知之甚少。本研究通过探索城市中极度贫困的孕妇的食物供应策略来调查这些生活经历。这方面的知识很重要，因为目前正在围绕制定新的发展目标进行讨论。方法：采用重点民族志方法，探讨家庭食品供应经验。在孟加拉国达卡的一个城市贫民窟收集了参与者观察、焦点小组讨论和半结构化访谈的数据。对28名参与者进行了访谈，其中包括12名孕妇和新妈妈、2名丈夫、9名非孕妇和5名保健工作者。结果：主要发现是：1)妇女意识到良好营养的重要性，并在怀孕期间展示了准确的、基于生物医学的健康饮食习惯知识；2)传统上限制妇女获得营养资源的规范性性别规则在城市环境中正在放松；然而，由于市场上食品价格的上涨，妇女在获得足够质量和数量的食品方面面临挑战。结论：粮食价格上涨以及由于收入不足而导致的粮食不安全使最近提高妇女怀孕期间健康饮食知识和增强她们的性别权能的努力付息。为了保持营养知识方面的进步，提高妇女的流动性和决策能力；在制定新的发展目标时，政策还必须考虑到全球粮食政治经济。
Background: Maternal malnutrition in Bangladesh is a persistent health issue and is the product of a number of complex factors, including adherence to food 'taboos' and a patriarchal gender order that limits women's mobility and decision-making. The recent global food price crisis is also negatively impacting poor pregnant women's access to food. It is believed that those who are most acutely affected by rising food prices are the urban poor. While there is an abundance of useful quantitative research centered on maternal nutrition and food insecurity measurements in Bangladesh, missing is an understanding of how food insecurity is experienced by people who are most vulnerable, the urban ultra-poor. In particular, little is known of the lived experience of food insecurity among pregnant women in this context. This research investigated these lived experiences by exploring food provisioning strategies of urban, ultra-poor, pregnant women. This knowledge is important as discussions surrounding the creation of new development goals are currently underway.Methods: Using a focused-ethnographic approach, household food provisioning experiences were explored. Data from participant observation, a focus group discussion and semi-structured interviews were collected in an urban slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Interviews were undertaken with 28 participants including 12 pregnant women and new mothers, two husbands, nine non-pregnant women, and five health care workers.Results: The key findings are: 1) women were aware of the importance of good nutrition and demonstrated accurate, biomedically-based knowledge of healthy eating practices during pregnancy; 2) the normative gender rules that have traditionally constrained women's access to nutritional resources are relaxing in the urban setting; however 3) women are challenged in accessing adequate quality and quantities of food due to the increase in food prices at the market.Conclusions: Rising food prices and resultant food insecurity due to insufficient incomes are negating the recent efforts that have increased women's knowledge of healthy eating during pregnancy and their gendered empowerment. In order to maintain the gains in nutritional knowledge and women's increased mobility and decision-making capacity; policy must also consider the global political economy of food in the creation of the new development goals.