title: Being perceived as 'a real woman' or following one's own convictions: a qualitative study to understand individual, family, and community influences on the place of childbirth in Busia, Kenya.
abstract: Despite potentially playing a key role in improving maternal and child health, including the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, health facility delivery rates remain low in Kenya. Understanding how place of childbirth is determined is therefore important when developing interventions to improve safe motherhood and childbirth outcomes. As part of a qualitative study, we conducted 25 in-depth interviews with mothers (13) and healthcare staff (12) and held 10 focus group discussions with traditional birth attendants (6) and female relatives (4) in Busia, rural Kenya. Our findings show that mothers prefer facility delivery; however, the choice is not theirs alone but involves both their family and the community. Furthermore, facility delivery poses a risk of being viewed as disloyal to tradition and not 'a real woman', which causes a strained relationship between healthcare staff, family and the community. Our interpretation of the findings is that mothers feel trapped between loyalty to sociocultural norms and awareness of the benefits of facility delivery. Also, we believe healthcare staff's disinclination to recognise certain traditional birth attendant services as a potential asset poses a barrier to increased facility deliveries. Interventions to link traditional birth attendants with formal healthcare combined with sociocultural sensitivity training for healthcare staff may increase facility delivery and PMTCT.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Public Health , Division of Global Health, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dahlberg
authors.forename: Björn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Södergård
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thorson
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Alfvén
authors.forename: Opondo
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Awiti-Ujiji
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003657:Decision Making; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D005783:Gender Identity; D006268:Health Facilities; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006700:Home Childbirth / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007630:Kenya; D008880:Midwifery; D036801:Parturition / Q000523:psychology; D057240:Patient Preference; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012931:Social Environment; D066262:Social Norms
keywords: HIV; Kenya; facility delivery; integration; traditional birth attendants