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Traditional practices may be dangerous
Some traditional practices used in Pakistan in the period following
birth may put new mothers and their infants at risk of death, according
to a study recently published in Social Science & Medicine.
Dr. Fariyal F. Fikree, Director of Regional Health Programmes in
the Cairo office of the Population Council and former member of
the Bangkok-based UNFPA Country Support Team for East and South-East
Asia, and her colleagues studied traditional postpartum and neonatal
beliefs and practices among new mothers in impoverished areas of
Karachi, Pakistan.
They found that, although a pregnancy may have ended, serious diseases
or disabilities associated with pregnancy, such as infection or
heavy bleeding, are possible and some traditional practices may
increase the likelihood of these maladies.
The investigators discovered that traditional practices that might
cause infection or exacerbate bleeding were common during the delivery
and recovery period.
The investigators also asked the women about practices used in the
care and feeding of their newborn babies. More than half (55 per
cent) reported feeding their children with traditional substances
such as honey, ghutti (a herbal paste), water, green tea or other
foods.
One woman said that she followed the advice of her mother-in-law
in discarding the colostrum since “the first milk is dirty
because it has been stagnant for nine months. So I let this milk
come out, and I gave my baby buffalo milk with a bit of water mixed
in it for three days”. While 8 per cent of the mothers withheld
breast milk for two or more days after the birth, the majority of
mothers breastfed their infants regularly after initial delays.
Also worrying to the researchers was the treatment of the umbilical
stump; more than half the mothers applied such substances as mustard
oil, coconut oil, surma (containing metallic antimony), all of which
may lead to sepsis, a potentially deadly infection of the blood.
Dr. Fikree and her colleagues suggest that their results illustrate
the fundamental role that traditional beliefs and practices play
in the health-seeking and care-giving behaviour of new mothers in
parts of Pakistan. “We recommend that care givers help women
to differentiate between benign and harmful practices. . . . Harmless
traditional practices can be encouraged in counseling sessions and
through information dissemination, and risky ones discouraged”,
they said. “In this way we can maintain traditions in a healthier
way”.
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