No description available.

Thesis (M.A.I.S.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-168). Also available on the World Wide Web.

This thesis adopts maternal well-being as a prism for studying the roles and identities of African women. It critically analyzes the dynamics in culture and religion that militate against women's quest for fullness of life. As its methodology, it adopts narratives of African women as a source and means of theological research based on the anthropological model. This method prioritizes the voices and humanity of previously silenced, excluded, and oppressed women and their conditions of maternal mortality, poverty, and oppression rooted in gender biases and patriarchal stereotypes. Theology has largely ignored the reality of maternal mortality evidenced by the paucity of theological materials. A consequence of the neglect and ignorance of this critical factor is the chasm between the rhetorical use of feminine and maternal symbolisms to represent and define the significance of women in church and society and the concrete realities that confront them as women. Bridging this gap necessitates identifying exemplary icons and models of maternal leadership and wisdom in scripture, traditions, and cultural practices to redefine the status, identity, and role of women. It also entails recognizing and harnessing the unique gifts, qualities, and spirituality of African women for the edification of church, transformation of society, and flourishing of humanity. Of salience is the practice of maternal leadership as a source of a new ethos for church and society through women's capacities and contributions, though a patriarchal mind-set imposes biological motherhood as the sole criterion for defining women's existence and relevance. Maternal leadership and wisdom liberated from a reductionist, biological understanding of motherhood and the highlighting of incarnated roles and identities inspired by maternal values represent innovative and original aspects of this thesis. Only by listening to voices of women can church and society develop a more just, liberating, and inclusive understanding of womanhood and motherhood. Nothing substitutes for the voices of women.

The central concern of this study is the social, cultural and political position of traditional birth attendants (TBA), known as yiey maap (grandmother midwives) in Chup Commune (pseudonym). In particular, this study explores strategies yiey maap use to negotiate or bypass Western model health services in an attempt to maintain their personal integrity and cultural capital as birth attendants, and to ensure the physical, emotional, economic and cultural safety of the woman they care for. / This thesis explores traditional maternity knowledges and practices using ethnographic methods to investigate the central issues, concerns and barriers confronting rural woman as they make choices to adapt, resist or negotiate Western maternity care. It is vital to consider historical, political, cultural and economic factors that influence women's decisions in order to understand how and why women hold onto or surrender their traditional childbirth knowledges and practices, including the preservation of yiey maap, their favoured birth attendant. / Safe Motherhood initiatives were introduced into resource-poor countries by the World Health Organization in 1987 with the goal of reducing maternal mortality rates. They were based on the premise that pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum care were safer when provided by skilled birth attendants in a modern health facility. TBAs were not considered skilled birth attendants by Safe Motherhood partner agencies, as training and utilizing TBAs in Safe Motherhood initiatives did not have a measurable impact on maternal mortality rates. Instead, TBAs' roles have been recast, and TBAs are expected to be health promoters and educators, referral agents and information gatherers. / I argue that Khmer women do not engage with the modern health system because it is unfamiliar and expensive, and health personnel provide poor quality care. Instead, in times of obstetric emergencies, women attempt to negotiate their own and their family's safety through personal autonomy and agency. / I conclude by proposing alternative approaches and strategies, including the increased utilisation of yiey maap in Cambodian Safe Motherhood programs. A central question is whether the Ministry of Health, supported by bilateral and multilateral agencies, should train and utilize yiey maap or midwives in maternity care. I argue that both are of equal importance. Until yiey maap are valued for their contribution to, and enjoy equitable inclusion in midwifery care, initiatives that involve yiey maap as program "extras", who undertake peripheral tasks, will not reduce maternal mortality rates.

No description available.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:38:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MelinaSSR_DISSERT.pdf: 766520 bytes, checksum: 94ba69fb0fb57c7457d4913d723795f2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-20 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / Abortion is a very controversial and stigmatized subject, target of many criticism and discussions, mainly regarding to the legal, bioethical and religious aspects involved. In Brazil, abortion is considered a serious public health problem, being the major cause of maternal death due to its criminalization. The woman who causes an abortion is not up looked by society, since motherhood, culturally and historically, was imposed as a destination. Our main goal is to understand, from the existential-phenomenological perspective, the unique experience of the woman who induced the abortion This study is an offshoot of a larger study from USP in partnership with UFRN. Our participants were women who checked in on a maternity hospital in Natal with a miscarriage diagnosis and, among them, those who reported having induced abortion. Altogether, five women were interviewed. The used method was a phenomenological hermeneutics. The research revealed that the experience of abortion is a possibility that permeates women s life, being understood as a choice. This choice pervaded by much suffering, once it goes against everything that women are culturally taught and meant to be. The feeling more surfacing in this experiment, confirming the literature review, was blame. Abortion was also shown as an experience of helplessness and loneliness, due to lack of support from family and the partner. It was also revealed that abortion was made, mainly, by the desire of going along with future projects, including the prosecute of motherhood in the therms of what they consider ideal to a son s arrival, meaning, a family formation grounded on a stable relationship. Regarding the care provided by health professionals to these women, there is the need of restructuring the operating logic of SUS, so that women have the right to health in a integrate manner. This experience also made women reconsider the meanings they had towards abortion, and their life projects / O aborto provocado ? um tema bastante pol?mico e estigmatizado, sendo alvo de muitas cr?ticas e discuss?es, principalmente no que se refere aos aspectos legais, bio?ticos e religiosos envolvidos. No Brasil, o aborto ? considerado um grave problema de sa?de p?blica, sendo um dos maiores causadores de morte materna devido ? sua criminaliza??o. A mulher que provoca um aborto n?o ? bem vista pela sociedade, uma vez que a maternidade, cultural e historicamente, lhe foi imposta como destino. O nosso principal objetivo ? compreender, a partir da perspectiva fenomenol?gico-existencial, a experi?ncia singular dessa mulher que provocou o aborto. O presente estudo ? um desdobramento de uma pesquisa mais ampla da USP em parceria com a UFRN. As nossas participantes foram mulheres que deram entrada em uma maternidade da cidade de Natal com diagn?stico de abortamento e, dentre estas, as que relataram ter provocado o aborto. Ao todo, cinco mulheres foram entrevistadas. O m?todo utilizado foi a hermen?utica fenomenol?gica. A pesquisa revelou que a experi?ncia do aborto ? uma possibilidade que permeia a exist?ncia da mulher, sendo compreendido como uma escolha. Escolha essa perpassada por muito sofrimento, na medida em que a mulher se posiciona contra tudo o que lhe foi ensinado e destinado culturalmente. O sentimento que mais vem ? tona nessa experi?ncia, confirmando a revis?o de literatura, ? a culpa. O aborto tamb?m se mostrou como uma experi?ncia de desamparo e solid?o, devido ? falta de apoio da fam?lia e do parceiro. Tamb?m foi revelado que o aborto se deu, em grande parte, pelo desejo de dar continuidade aos projetos futuros, inclusive o exerc?cio da maternidade dentro do que consideram ideal para a chegada de um filho, isto ?, a constitui??o de uma fam?lia alicer?ada num relacionamento est?vel. No que refere ao atendimento prestado pelos profissionais de sa?de a essas mulheres, revela-se a necessidade de uma reestrutura??o da l?gica de funcionamento do SUS para que estas tenham direito a sa?de de forma integral. Essa experi?ncia tamb?m fez as mulheres reverem os significados que tinham em rela??o ao aborto, bem como os seus projetos de vida