Childbirth traditions and cultural perceptions of safety in Nepal: critical spaces to ensure the survival of mothers and newborns in remote mountain villages

Objective: To uncover local views of pregnancy and birth in remote mountainous villages of Nepal in order to understand the factors which impact on women’s experiences of pregnancy and childbirth and the related interplay of tradition, spiritual beliefs, risk and safety which impact on those experiences. Design: This study used a qualitative methodological approach with in-depth interviews frameworked within social constructionist and feminist critical theories. Setting: The setting comprised two remote Nepalese mountain villages where women have high rates of illiteracy, poverty, disadvantage, maternal and newborn mortality, and low life expectancy. Interviews were conducted between February and June, 2010. Participants: Twenty five pregnant/ postnatal women, 5 husbands, 5 mothers-in-law, 1 father-in-law, 5 service providers and 5 community stakeholders from the local communities were involved. Findings: Nepalese women, their families and most of their community strongly value their childbirth traditions and associated spiritual beliefs and they profoundly shape women’s views of safety and risk during pregnancy and childbirth, influencing how birth and new motherhood fit into daily life. These intense culturally-based views of childbirth safety conflict starkly with the medical view of childbirth safety and risk. Key conclusions and Implications for practice: If maternity services are to improve maternal and neonatal survival rates in Nepal, maternity care providers must genuinely partner with local women inclusive of their cultural beliefs, and provide locally based primary maternity care. Women will then be more likely to attend maternity care services, and benefit from feeling culturally safe and culturally respected within their spiritual traditions of birth supported by the reduction of risk provided by informed and reverent medicalised care