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Families' beliefs and practices compared with Western health model |
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| Traditional model-beliefs and practice |
Western health model: effects of reported behaviour on health, and basis for this judgement |
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| Themes |
Beliefs |
What is reported to be actually happening |
Effects of actual behaviour on health |
Explanation of these effects |
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| Dietary precautions |
Eating more food |
All consumed more food than usual. |
Beneficial [23] |
Provides adequate nutrients for lactation. |
| Eating hot food (protein rich) |
All consumed these foods. |
Beneficial[21,22,23] |
Provides adequate nutrients for lactation. Provides nutrients that promote healing of tears and incisions. |
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| Avoiding cold food (fruit and vegetables) |
All ate vegetables, but less amount and fewer kinds. |
No obvious health effects |
If very restricted, could cause constipation. However, women did not report constipation as a problem. |
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| Hygiene |
No bathing or washing hair |
Rural: Most bathed. Urban: Most used dry or damp towel to clean skin. Half washed hair. |
No obvious health effects |
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| Vulval and perineal hygiene is important |
All did daily vulval and perineal hygiene. |
Beneficial [24,25] |
Promotes healing of tears and incisions, prevents infections. |
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| No brushing teeth. |
Most did not practice pre-birth dental hygiene habits. |
Harmful [31,32] |
Allows a build up of plaque and bacteria that can cause teeth decay. |
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| Behavioural precautions |
Staying inside the home |
All stayed in their homes. |
No obvious health effects |
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| Avoiding housework |
Most did no housework. |
Beneficial |
Allows time to recover from childbirth and focus on caring for the baby. |
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| Resting in bed. |
Women walked around room or home. Few did other exercises. |
No obvious health effects |
With complete bed rest, deep vein thrombosis is a risk but no women reported this. |
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| Abstaining from sex |
All followed this restriction. |
No obvious health effects |
Allows time for the reproductive tract tissues to recover and heal. |
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| Limiting visitors |
Most families had fewer visitors. |
No obvious health effects |
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| Infant feeding |
Breastfeeding is best |
All breastfed, but only two exclusively. Most gave supplements in first 3 days and continued for whole period. |
Harmful [37-40] |
Interferes with milk production and breastfeeding technique, possible source of infection. |
| Giving honeysuckle for skin rash |
Rural: infrequently. Urban: common. |
Unknown |
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Raven et al. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 2007 7:8 doi:10.1186/1471-2393-7-8 |
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