IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v62y2006i11p2798-2809.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Barriers to and attitudes towards promoting husbands' involvement in maternal health in Katmandu, Nepal

Author

Listed:
  • Mullany, Britta C.

Abstract

Couple-friendly reproductive health services and male partner involvement in women's reproductive health have recently garnered considerable attention. Given the sensitive nature of gender roles and relations in many cultures, understanding the context of a particular setting, potential barriers, and attitudes towards a new intervention are necessary first steps in designing services that include men. In preparation for a male involvement in antenatal care intervention, this qualitative study specifically aims to: (a) understand the barriers to male involvement in maternal health and (b) explore men's, women's, and providers' attitudes towards the promotion of male involvement in antenatal care and maternal health. In-depth interviews were conducted with fourteen couples and eight maternal health care providers at a public maternity hospital in Katmandu, Nepal. Additionally, seventeen couples participated in focus group discussions. The most prominent barriers to male involvement in maternal health included low levels of knowledge, social stigma, shyness/embarrassment and job responsibilities. Though providers also foresaw some obstacles, primarily in the forms of hospital policy, manpower and space problems, providers unanimously felt the option of couples-friendly maternal health services would enhance the quality of care and understanding of health information given to pregnant women, echoing attitudes expressed by most pregnant women and their husbands. Accordingly, a major shift in hospital policy was seen as an important first step in introducing couple-friendly antenatal or delivery services. The predominantly favorable attitudes of pregnant women, husbands, and providers towards encouraging greater male involvement in maternal health in this study imply that the introduction of an option for such services would be both feasible and well accepted.

Suggested Citation

  • Mullany, Britta C., 2006. "Barriers to and attitudes towards promoting husbands' involvement in maternal health in Katmandu, Nepal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(11), pages 2798-2809, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:62:y:2006:i:11:p:2798-2809
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(05)00605-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gittelsohn, Joel, 1991. "Opening the box: Intrahousehold food allocation in rural Nepal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1141-1154, January.
    2. Dudgeon, Matthew R. & Inhorn, Marcia C., 2004. "Men's influences on women's reproductive health: medical anthropological perspectives," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(7), pages 1379-1395, October.
    3. Mullany, Britta C. & Hindin, Michelle J. & Becker, Stan, 2005. "Can women's autonomy impede male involvement in pregnancy health in Katmandu, Nepal?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(9), pages 1993-2006, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Brunson, Jan, 2010. "Confronting maternal mortality, controlling birth in Nepal: The gendered politics of receiving biomedical care at birth," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(10), pages 1719-1727, November.
    2. Kyi Mar Wai & Akira Shibanuma & Nwe Nwe Oo & Toki Jennifer Fillman & Yu Mon Saw & Masamine Jimba, 2015. "Are Husbands Involving in Their Spouses’ Utilization of Maternal Care Services?: A Cross-Sectional Study in Yangon, Myanmar," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Thapa, Deependra Kaji & Niehof, Anke, 2013. "Women's autonomy and husbands' involvement in maternal health care in Nepal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 1-10.
    4. Jerico Franciscus Pardosi & Nick Parr & Salut Muhidin, 2017. "Fathers and infant health and survival in Ende, a rural district of Eastern Indonesia," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 185-207, June.
    5. Ganle, John Kuumuori & Dery, Isaac & Manu, Abubakar A. & Obeng, Bernard, 2016. "‘If I go with him, I can't talk with other women’: Understanding women's resistance to, and acceptance of, men's involvement in maternal and child healthcare in northern Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 195-204.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thapa, Deependra Kaji & Niehof, Anke, 2013. "Women's autonomy and husbands' involvement in maternal health care in Nepal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 1-10.
    2. Kyi Mar Wai & Akira Shibanuma & Nwe Nwe Oo & Toki Jennifer Fillman & Yu Mon Saw & Masamine Jimba, 2015. "Are Husbands Involving in Their Spouses’ Utilization of Maternal Care Services?: A Cross-Sectional Study in Yangon, Myanmar," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Ueyama, Mika, 2007. "Income growth and gender bias in childhood mortality in developing countries:," IFPRI discussion papers 739, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Laura K. Merrell & Sarah R. Blackstone, 2020. "Women’s Empowerment as a Mitigating Factor for Improved Antenatal Care Quality despite Impact of 2014 Ebola Outbreak in Guinea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-18, November.
    5. Samb, Oumar Mallé & Ridde, Valery, 2018. "The impact of free healthcare on women's capability: A qualitative study in rural Burkina Faso," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 9-16.
    6. Uddin, Jalal & Pulok, Mohammad Habibullah & Sabah, Md. Nasim-Us, 2015. "Couple’s reports of household decision-making, unmet need for contraception, and unintended pregnancy in Bangladesh," MPRA Paper 63757, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Ngo, Thi Minh-Phuong & Wahhaj, Zaki, 2012. "Microfinance and gender empowerment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 1-12.
    8. Fernandez, Antonia & Kambhampati, Uma S., 2017. "Shared agency: The dominant spouse’s impact on education expenditure," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 182-197.
    9. Powis, Richard & Bunkley, Emma N., 2023. "Handbooks and health interpreters: How men are assets for their pregnant partners in Senegal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    10. Arimond, Mary & Ruel, Marie T., 2001. "Assessing care," FCND briefs 119, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. Vanderlinden, Lisa K., 2009. "German genes and Turkish traits: Ethnicity, infertility, and reproductive politics in Germany," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 266-273, July.
    12. Mullany, Britta C. & Hindin, Michelle J. & Becker, Stan, 2005. "Can women's autonomy impede male involvement in pregnancy health in Katmandu, Nepal?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(9), pages 1993-2006, November.
    13. Haddad, Lawrence James & Peña, Christine & Nishida, Chizuru & Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Slack, Alison T., 1996. "Food security and nutrition implications of intrahousehold bias," FCND discussion papers 19, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    14. Mumtaz, Zubia & Salway, Sarah, 2009. "Understanding gendered influences on women's reproductive health in Pakistan: Moving beyond the autonomy paradigm," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1349-1356, April.
    15. Johanna T. Wong & Brigitte Bagnol & Heather Grieve & Joanita Bendita Jong & Mu Li & Robyn G. Alders, 2018. "Factors influencing animal-source food consumption in Timor-Leste," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(3), pages 741-762, June.
    16. Lépine, Aurélia & Strobl, Eric, 2013. "The Effect of Women’s Bargaining Power on Child Nutrition in Rural Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 17-30.
    17. Martin Amogre Ayanore & Milena Pavlova & Regien Biesma & Wim Groot, 2017. "Stakeholder's experiences, expectations and decision making on reproductive care: An ethnographic study of three districts in northern Ghana," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(11), pages 1-21, November.
    18. Saruna Ghimire & Binaya Kumar Baral & Karen Callahan, 2017. "Nutritional assessment of community-dwelling older adults in rural Nepal," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-15, February.
    19. Anuradha Seth, 1998. "Intra-Household Consumption Patterns: Issues, Evidence and Implications for Human Development," Human Development Occasional Papers (1992-2007) HDOCPA-1998-18, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    20. Teixeira, Maria & Guillaume, Agnès & Ferrand, Michèle & Adjamabgo, Agnès & Bajos, Nathalie, 2012. "Representations and uses of emergency contraception in West Africa. A social anthropological reading of a northern medicinal product," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 148-155.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:62:y:2006:i:11:p:2798-2809. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.