Areej Haitham
Research student, School of Healthcare Sciences
Research
Thesis
The meaning of postpartum health and illness from the perspective of mothers and healthcare providers in Saudi Arabia.
In Saudi Arabia postpartum health is available in maternity hospitals and primary health care centres. However, mothers are not very keen on the idea of seeking medical advice. Unfortunately this time period is governed by traditional beliefs, customs and practices that might not be consistent with a medical perspective. Additionally healthcare providers' concern for maternal health increases dramatically during pregnancy and childbirth while postpartum issues do not receive as much attention.
This study explores how mothers and healthcare providers construct their concepts of postpartum health and illness. The proposed design studies ethnography and the data collection tools include observation and interviews. In this study the researcher will perform frequent visits and interviews of participants at one of the most popular educational university hospitals in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia.