Prenatal care in Peru is influenced by two key issues formal education of women and place of residence. This is because, in this country, the government makes greater efforts to provide modern maternal health care services in the big cities than in the rural areas. For instance, the women in large cities have access to prenatal education, health services and delivery assistance while the women in the rural areas do not even have access to medical care and assistance. The women in the cities give birth in a hospital and the ones in the rural areas at home. People of Peru also believe that women are allowed to eat everything they want while they are expecting. This practice in this country affects the rate of infant mortality in the rural areas. Also, more children are born with health issues in the rural areas and health issues affect their development. The way this is similar to my own experience is about prenatal care even though that prenatal care was available to me. I did not have prenatal care until I was 4 months pregnant because I was scare. Another similarity was about food. We all know that pregnant have to be extra careful with their nutrition, but in Peru they still think pregnant women should eat everything they want without any restrictions. The difference is that if I were a Peruvian living in a rural area when I was pregnant I would probably have lost my child, or he would be born with health issues.
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Hi Marta,
ReplyDeleteThis is fascinating! Do you suppose many rural areas of the U.S. exist where births are done at home due to lack of care? I had never considered it. When you say that they could eat anything they wanted and that this practice affected the infant mortality rates, was this due to over-indulging or eating specific foods that were dangerous to the baby?
Marta-
ReplyDeleteVery interesting that in Peru people feel that pregnant women can eat anything without thinking about nutritional value. But, then again when I think about my pregnancy I remember the quote, "You're eating for 2" was said to me many times. Sometimes when I was feeling "fat" I did eat for two, but with my second I tried not to. But, I'm not sure how well that worked as I'm still trying to get rid of my baby fat:)
Hi Tammra:
ReplyDeleteThe infant mortality rates is due to the birth complications. Women eat whatever they craved and as a consequence they gain a lot of weight and developed conditions such as preeclampsia and diabetes. These conditions on top of no medical care and delivery assistance causes mortality in infants and mothers.