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Community perspectives: an exploration of potential barriers to men’s involvement in maternity care in a central Tanzanian community

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dc.creator Gibore, Nyasiro S.
dc.creator Bali, Theodora A. L.
dc.date 2021-05-27T12:16:28Z
dc.date 2021-05-27T12:16:28Z
dc.date 2020
dc.date.accessioned 2022-10-20T14:01:47Z
dc.date.available 2022-10-20T14:01:47Z
dc.identifier Gibore, N. S., & Bali, T. A. (2020). Community perspectives: an exploration of potential barriers to men’s involvement in maternity care in a central Tanzanian community. PloS one, 15(5).
dc.identifier DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232939
dc.identifier URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0232939
dc.identifier http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12661/3250
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12661/3250
dc.description Full text article. Also available at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232939
dc.description Male involvement in maternal health has been linked to positive health outcomes for women and children, as they control household resources and make significant decisions, which influence maternal health. Despite of the important role they have in maternal health care, their actual involvement remains low. The objective of this study was to explore community perspectives on potential barriers to men’s involvement in maternity care in central Tanzania. Qualitative research methods were used in data collection. We conducted 32 focus group discussions (16 FGDs with men and 16 FGDs with women) and 34 in-depth interviews with community leaders, village health workers and health care providers. Interview guides were used to guide the focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. The interviews and discussions were audio recorded, transcribed and translated into English and imported into QSR NVivo 9 software for thematic analysis. Three themes emerged from the data; men’s maternity care involvement indicators, benefits of men’s involvement in maternity health care services and barriers to men’s involvement in maternity health care services. Both men and women participants acknowledged the importance of men’s involvement in maternity health care services, even though few men actually got involved. Identified benefits of men’s involvement in maternity health care services include: Learning any risk factors directly from the health care providers and getting prepared in addressing them; and reinforcing adherence to instruction received from the health care provider as family protectors and guardians. Barriers to men’s involvement in maternity health care services are systemic; starting from the family, health care and culture-specific gender norms for maternity related behaviour as well as healthcare facilities structural constrains inhibiting implementation of couple-friendly maternity health care services. Men’s involvement in maternity care is influenced by culture-specific maternity-related gender norms. This situation is compounded by the conditions of deprivation that deny women access to resources with which they could find alternative support during pregnancy. Moreover, structures meant for maternal health care services lack privacy, thus inhibiting male partners’ presence in the delivery room. Intervention to increase men’s involvement in maternity care should address individual and systemic barriers to men’s involvement.
dc.language en
dc.publisher PLOS
dc.subject Men in maternal health
dc.subject Maternal health care
dc.subject Maternal health
dc.subject Health care
dc.subject Community health
dc.title Community perspectives: an exploration of potential barriers to men’s involvement in maternity care in a central Tanzanian community
dc.type Article


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