Nutrition during pregnancy. A qualitative study performed in Pailin Province, rural Cambodia.

Background and aim: In Cambodia maternal health is one of the health issues following their complicated and tumultuous past. With our fieldwork we got the chance, through Tromsø Mine Victim Resource Centre (TMC) and Dr Margit Steinholt, to interview midwives and pregnant women in a rural area of Cambodia. Our study evolved to investigate nutrition during pregnancy, with the aim of surveying the participants’ knowledge of nutrition during pregnancy and what their sources were for this knowledge. We also wanted to inquire if there was a difference between the pregnant women’s knowledge and action, and if so, what factors could explain this discrepancy. Material and methods: We conducted a qualitative study interviewing eleven participants; four midwives and seven pregnant women. We used an interpreter, translating between English and Khmer, the mother language in Cambodia. During the interviews we used both structured and semi-structured interview techniques. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed. Results and conclusion: Our findings showed that the knowledge of nutrition during pregnancy amongst the midwives evolved around essential groups of food and the importance of eating from all these groups. For the pregnant women there was a greater variation in their knowledge, ranging from eating the same as before getting pregnant to having a focus on a varied nutrition and taking precautions. There was a wide range of sources for the pregnant women’s knowledge other than the midwives. We discovered that there was a discrepancy between the pregnant women’s knowledge and their application of it. The discrepancy we found showed to be dependent upon multiple factors, such as economy, availability, family hierarchy, time and cultural traditions, which seemed to play a role in adherence of nutritional advice