Annotated Source- Eurojournals

This article is exactly what I needed to read.  After a meeting on Wednesday I got a more clear direction on what my project should be.  I want to broaden my audience to the under five population's health.  Working directly with infants and young kids would not be possible so I am going to have to go through the mothers/ caretakers. I would like to see the mother's decision on the type of health care she uses for her children whether that's the local midwife or the town's hospital/ clinic. This article helped me better understand reasons why a mother would choose a certain place to take her children for health.
The main points I pulled from the article were:

- It is often maintained that women’s choices and preferences for location of childbirth are enshrined in society’s understanding of birth as a social process.

-Undoubtedly, the choice of and preference for childbirth location are influenced by the socio-economic factors of the contextual environment in which they arise. Cultural and religious epistemologies shape the demand for health seeking such as the demand for delivery institution.

-In some communities, it is regarded a bad omen if a woman delivers via caesarian section, hence the choice of home delivery.

-Anecdotal evidence among a section of the Akans, a Ghanaian tribe, had it that a woman who experiences prolonged difficulty delivering at home might have cheated her husband through adultery.

-Traditionally, children in Ghana are delivered at home with the assistance of birth attendants or elderly women of the community

-Maternal education has been shown to be positively associated with the utilization of maternity care services

Another important factor in the utilization of maternity care services, especially in Africa is the cultural background of the woman. The cultural perspective on the use of maternal health services suggests that medical need is determined not only by the presence of physical disease but also by cultural perception of illness.

In many parts of Africa, women’s decision making power is extremely limited, particularly in matters of reproduction and sexuality. In this regard, decisions about maternal care are often made by husbands or other family members.

As I look at each reason a women would stay home for care or go to a clinic I see that I have a lot of research to do but definitely would like to keep going on this path on reason's why a women chooses the route for medicine. 

The article can be found here.