Return to search

Exploring Syrian Refugee Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Experiences: A Multi-Methods Qualitative Study in Ottawa, Ontario

Since 2015 Canada has welcomed 44,620 Syrian refugees. The research on Syrian refugees in Canada has mainly focused on their immediate health needs, communicable diseases, and chronic illnesses. Aside from maternal health, the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs of Syrian refugee women is undocumented in Canada. To address this gap in the literature we conducted a qualitative study in Ottawa, Ontario that involved in-depth interviews with Syrian refugee women and individuals who provide health services to them.

When accessing SRH services Syrian women identified a preference for women providers, faced difficulty adjusting to societal norms during the perinatal period, felt that contraception counselling was not culturally informed, and struggled with their maternal mental health. Key informants mainly echoed these findings and expressed a need for more cultural competency/humility training, interpretation services, and trauma-informed counselling. The path to improving SRH services for Syrian women is complex, but highly warranted.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/42597
Date30 August 2021
CreatorsCrich, Laura
ContributorsFoster, Angel
PublisherUniversité d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Source SetsUniversité d’Ottawa
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Formatapplication/pdf

Page generated in 0.0028 seconds