Why Rural Women Use—or Avoid—Maternal Health Services : Insights from a Qualitative Study in Bolivia
Bolivia has achieved significant improvements in its reproductive health indicators in recent years. Yet the country’s maternal mortality ratio, at 206 per 100,000 women in 2015, was the second highest in the Latin American and Caribbean region aft...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/531221604988973837/Why-Rural-Women-Use-or-Avoid-Maternal-Health-Services-Insights-from-a-Qualitative-Study-in-Bolivia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34778 |
| Summary: | Bolivia has achieved significant
improvements in its reproductive health indicators in recent
years. Yet the country’s maternal mortality ratio, at 206
per 100,000 women in 2015, was the second highest in the
Latin American and Caribbean region after Haiti. Bolivia’s
indigenous women are particularly vulnerable to death from
complications related to pregnancy, childbirth, and the
post-partum period. In the past, there have been no studies
that sought the views of health providers and users to
understand and address this problem in rural indigenous
communities. This study fills that gap by tapping this
experiential knowledge in these communities in Bolivia and
gain insights into supply- and demand-side barriers that
keep women away from institutional maternal health services.
Increasing their use of quality maternal care is vital to
long-term goals to lower the country’s maternal mortality
ratio. Both supply- and demand-side influences restrain the
uptake of maternal health services by rural indigenous
women. Strengthening the quality of maternal health
services, including provider-user interactions, is a first
and foremost priority that can be combined with targeted
behavior change interventions to reduce community,
household, and individual constraints on women seeking
maternal health services. |
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