IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v62y2006i8p1958-1969.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Kaqchikel midwives, home births, and emergency obstetric referrals in Guatemala: Contextualizing the choice to stay at home

Author

Listed:
  • Berry, Nicole S.

Abstract

Maternal mortality is highest in those countries whose health budgets are restricted. Practical strategies employed in the International Safe Motherhood Initiative, therefore, must be both effective and economical. Investing in emergency obstetric care resources has been touted as one such strategy. This investment aims to insure significant improvements are made in regional health centers, and a chain of referral is put into place so that only problem cases are attended by the most skilled health workers. This article examines how this model of referral functions in Sololá, Guatemala, where most Kaqchikel Mayan women give birth at home with a traditional midwife, and no skilled biomedical attendant is available at the birth to make a referral. Ethnographic data is used to explore reasons why women do not go to the hospital at the first sign of difficulty. I argue that the problem frequently is not that Mayan midwives, their clients and families fail to understand the biomedical information about dangers in birth, but rather that this information fails to fit into an already existing social system of understanding birth and birth-related knowledge.

Suggested Citation

  • Berry, Nicole S., 2006. "Kaqchikel midwives, home births, and emergency obstetric referrals in Guatemala: Contextualizing the choice to stay at home," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(8), pages 1958-1969, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:62:y:2006:i:8:p:1958-1969
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(05)00498-3
    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. Thaddeus, Sereen & Maine, Deborah, 1994. "Too far to walk: Maternal mortality in context," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1091-1110, April.
    2. Maine, D. & Rosenfield, A., 1999. "The safe motherhood initiative: Why has it stalled?," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(4), pages 480-482.
    3. Chapman, Rachel R., 2003. "Endangering safe motherhood in Mozambique: prenatal care as pregnancy risk," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 355-374, July.
    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. Siddiqui, Shayzal & Smith-Morris, Carolyn, 2022. "Professional competition amidst intractable maternal mortality: Midwifery in rural Pakistan during the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    2. Arps, Shahna, 2009. "Threats to safe motherhood in Honduran Miskito communities: Local perceptions of factors that contribute to maternal mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 579-586, August.
    3. Pourette, Dolorès & Pierlovisi, Carole & Randriantsara, Ranjatiana & Rakotomanana, Elliot & Mattern, Chiarella, 2018. "Avoiding a "big" baby: Local perceptions and social responses toward childbirth-related complications in Menabe, Madagascar," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 52-61.
    4. 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.
    5. Smith-Oka, Vania, 2012. "Bodies of risk: Constructing motherhood in a Mexican public hospital," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2275-2282.

    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. Cynthia K. Stanton, 2004. "Methodological Issues in the Measurement of Birth Preparedness in Support of Safe Motherhood," Evaluation Review, , vol. 28(3), pages 179-200, June.
    2. Pourette, Dolorès & Pierlovisi, Carole & Randriantsara, Ranjatiana & Rakotomanana, Elliot & Mattern, Chiarella, 2018. "Avoiding a "big" baby: Local perceptions and social responses toward childbirth-related complications in Menabe, Madagascar," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 52-61.
    3. Arps, Shahna, 2009. "Threats to safe motherhood in Honduran Miskito communities: Local perceptions of factors that contribute to maternal mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 579-586, August.
    4. Summer, Anna & Guendelman, Sylvia & Kestler, Edgar & Walker, Dilys, 2017. "Professional midwifery in Guatemala: A qualitative exploration of perceptions, attitudes and expectations among stakeholders," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 99-107.
    5. Gayen, Kaberi & Raeside, Robert, 2007. "Social networks, normative influence and health delivery in rural Bangladesh," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(5), pages 900-914, September.
    6. Siddiqui, Shayzal & Smith-Morris, Carolyn, 2022. "Professional competition amidst intractable maternal mortality: Midwifery in rural Pakistan during the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    7. Lídia Farré, 2013. "The Role of Men in the Economic and Social Development of Women: Implications for Gender Equality," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 22-51, February.
    8. Mitchell, Ellen M.H. & Kwizera, Amata & Usta, Momade & Gebreselassie, Hailemichael, 2010. "Choosing early pregnancy termination methods in Urban Mozambique," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 62-70, July.
    9. Kusuma, Dian & Cohen, Jessica & McConnell, Margaret & Berman, Peter, 2016. "Can cash transfers improve determinants of maternal mortality? Evidence from the household and community programs in Indonesia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 10-20.
    10. Okiwelu, Tamunosa & Hussein, Julia & Adjei, Sam & Arhinful, Daniel & Armar-Klemesu, Margaret, 2007. "Safe motherhood in Ghana: Still on the agenda?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(2-3), pages 359-367, December.
    11. Sushma Rajbanshi & Mohd Noor Norhayati & Nik Hussain Nik Hazlina, 2021. "Perceptions of Good-Quality Antenatal Care and Birthing Services among Postpartum Women in Nepal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-13, June.
    12. Weitzman, Abigail, 2017. "The effects of women's education on maternal health: Evidence from Peru," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 1-9.
    13. Chen, Chin-Shyan & Liu, Tsai-Ching & Chen, Li-Mei, 2003. "National Health Insurance and the antenatal care use: a case in Taiwan," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 99-112, April.
    14. Vitzthum, Virginia J. & Spielvogel, Hilde, 2003. "Epidemiological transitions, reproductive health, and the Flexible Response Model," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 223-242, June.
    15. Sara Rivenes Lafontan & Johanne Sundby & Hege L. Ersdal & Muzdalifat Abeid & Hussein L. Kidanto & Columba K. Mbekenga, 2018. "“I Was Relieved to Know That My Baby Was Safe” : Women’s Attitudes and Perceptions on Using a New Electronic Fetal Heart Rate Monitor during Labor in Tanzania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-12, February.
    16. Benjamin M Hunter & Sean Harrison & Anayda Portela & Debra Bick, 2017. "The effects of cash transfers and vouchers on the use and quality of maternity care services: A systematic review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-37, March.
    17. Habtamu Tolera & Tegegne Gebre-Egziabher & Helmut Kloos, 2020. "Using Andersen’s behavioral model of health care utilization in a decentralized program to examine the use of antenatal care in rural western Ethiopia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, January.
    18. Valadez, Joseph J. & Hage, Jerald & Vargas, William, 2005. "Understanding the relationship of maternal health behavior change and intervention strategies in a Nicaraguan NGO network," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 1356-1368, September.
    19. Matsuoka, Sadatoshi & Aiga, Hirotsugu & Rasmey, Lon Chan & Rathavy, Tung & Okitsu, Akiko, 2010. "Perceived barriers to utilization of maternal health services in rural Cambodia," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(2-3), pages 255-263, May.
    20. Hirose, Atsumi & Borchert, Matthias & Niksear, Homa & Alkozai, Ahmad Shah & Cox, Jonathan & Gardiner, Julian & Osmani, Khadija Ruina & Filippi, Véronique, 2011. "Difficulties leaving home: A cross-sectional study of delays in seeking emergency obstetric care in Herat, Afghanistan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(7), pages 1003-1013.

    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:8:p:1958-1969. 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.