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Background: Pregnancy and childbirth are socio-cultural events that carry varying meanings across different societies and cultures. These are often translated into social expectations of what a particular society expects women to do (or not to do) during pregnancy, birth and/or the postnatal period. This paper reports a study exploring beliefs around childbirth in Nepal, a low-income country with a largely Hindu population. The paper then sets these findings in the context of the wider global literature around issues such as periods where women are viewed as polluted (or dirty even) after childbirth.Methods: A qualitative study comprising five in-depth face-to-face interviews and 14 focus group discussions with mainly women, but also men and health service providers. The qualitative findings in Nepal were compared and contrasted with the literature on practices and cultural beliefs related to the pregnancy and childbirth period across the globe and at different times in history.Results: The themes that emerged from the analysis included: (a) cord cutting & placenta rituals; (b) rest & seclusion; (c) purification, naming & weaning ceremonies and (d) nutrition and breastfeeding. Physiological changes in mother and baby may underpin the various beliefs, ritual and practices in the postnatal period. These practices often mean women do not access postnatal health services.Conclusions: The cultural practices, taboos and beliefs during pregnancy and around childbirth found in Nepal largely resonate with those reported across the globe. This paper stresses that local people's beliefs and practices offer both opportunities and barriers to health service providers. Maternity care providers need to be aware of local values, beliefs and traditions to anticipate and meet the needs of women, gain their trust and work with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Engaging citizens and communities to make services accountable is vital to achieving health development goals. Community participation in health management committees can increase public accountability of health services. We conducted a cluster randomised controlled trial to test the impact of strengthened health management committees (HMCs) and community mobilisation through women's groups on institutional deliveries and deliveries by trained health workers in rural Nepal.Methods: The study was conducted in all Village Development Committee clusters in the hills district of Makwanpur (population of 420,500). In 21 intervention clusters, we conducted three-day workshops with HMCs to improve their capacity for planning and action and supported female community health volunteers to run women's groups. These groups met once a month and mobilised communities to address barriers to institutional delivery through participatory learning and action cycles. We compared this intervention with 22 control clusters. Prospective surveillance from October 2010 to the end of September 2012 captured complete data on 13,721 deliveries in intervention and control areas. Analysis was by intention to treat.Results: The women's group intervention was implemented as intended, but we were unable to support HMCs as planned because many did not meet regularly. The activities of community based organisations were systematically targeted at control clusters, which meant that there were no true 'control' clusters. 39% (5403) of deliveries were in health institutions and trained health workers attended most of them. There were no differences between trial arms in institutional delivery uptake (1.45, 0.76-2.78) or attendance by trained health workers (OR 1.43, 95% CI 0.74-2.74).Conclusions: The absence of a true counterfactual and inadequate coverage of the HMC strengthening intervention impedes our ability to draw conclusions. Further research is needed to test the effectiveness of strengthening public accountability mechanisms on increased utilisation of services at delivery.Trial Registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN99834806. Date of registration:28/09/10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Encouraging institutional birth is an important component of reducing maternal mortality in low-resource settings. This study aims to identify and understand the determinants of persistently low institutional birth in rural Nepal, with the goal of informing future interventions to reduce high rates of maternal mortality.Methods: Postpartum women giving birth in the catchment area population of a district-level hospital in the Far-Western Development Region of Nepal were invited to complete a cross-sectional survey in 2012 about their recent birth experience. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to determine the institutional birth rate, social and demographic predictors of institutional birth, and barriers to institutional birth.Results: The institutional birth rate for the hospital's catchment area population was calculated to be 0.30 (54 home births, 23 facility births). Institutional birth was more likely as age decreased (ORs in the range of 0.20-0.28) and as income increased (ORs in the range of 1.38-1.45). Institutional birth among women who owned land was less likely (OR = 0.82 [0.71, 0.92]). Ninety percent of participants in the institutional birth group identified safety and good care as the most important factors determining location of birth, whereas 60 % of participants in the home birth group reported distance from hospital as a key determinant of location of birth. Qualitative analysis elucidated the importance of social support, financial resources, birth planning, awareness of services, perception of safety, and referral capacity in achieving an institutional birth.Conclusion: Age, income, and land ownership, but not patient preference, were key predictors of institutional birth. Most women believed that birth at the hospital was safer regardless of where they gave birth. Future interventions to increase rates of institutional birth should address structural barriers including differences in socioeconomic status, social support, transportation resources, and birth preparedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]