Influence of the Socio-cultural Factors in Health-Seeking Behaviour of Women during Pregnancy in Rural Bangladesh

Abstract

There are several social, religious and economic barriers that prevent pregnant women from seeking services from health facilities. The conventional economic views promotes that the government health facilities located in rural areas provide free antenatal care (ANC), delivery and postnatal care (PNC) services, yet the cost related to medicines, transportation and surgical operations in the case of complications discourages poor women to seek services from these facilities. This economic view may explain part of the puzzle yet social stigma generated through patriarchal structure deserves some credit. For instance, a prevalent perception among male is that pregnancy is a natural process for women and it will pass normally and thus no extra care and support is needed in this phase of life. Men (and sometimes along with women) promote superstitions like not taking much food during pregnancy arguing that extra feeding shall increase the growth of the fetus and will affect normal delivery. The disarray in health seeking behaviour is strongly associated with inferior status of girls and women in Bangladesh. This is mainly due to entrenched dysfunctional gender relations brought about by dated social and cultural practices and is reinforced by literalist interpretations of religious tomes. Overriding all of these, the poor rural woman is treated as if her body and her future are not hers to own and manage. Naturally, this has a trickle down effect on any health-seeking behaviour of women. Based on empirical evidences this paper aims to explore the health situation of rural pregnant women and their health support seeking behaviour