Posted on 19th Sep 2024 11:11:55 PM Health and Nutrition
Introduction
Health is the source of all happiness. No nation can make progress without a healthy & stout population. So, for the development of a country such manpower is very much required. Healthy mother can give birth of a healthy baby. So, if is very much important to address the nutrition factor for a safe maternity and healthy nation.
Pregnancy & the birth process is a common event in every society [Cecil G. Helman: 1995]. According to the law of birth a baby comes through the pregnancy of women. So, they are not to be the victim of malnutrition besides, they should have proper knowledge about nutrition & food value. But, while pregnancy the nutrition & Medicare is controlled by various factors like nature of weakness, trust of rules, predecided assumptions, age, gender, personal sense of individual or various social elements [Klinmas 1980, Kleinman & Gale 1982].
Nutrition is not confined to physical structure but also it is a mental & social matter [Margaret Mid: 1950]. Although nutrition is a part of biological process, if is influenced by various social & cultural elements. In human life cycle, the nutrition is started with pregnant mother and transferred through the next generation. Various subjects are important while pregnancy like individual’s attitude, breast incensement, ministration, food control & avoidance. These are happened from the viewpoint of cognition. In the pregnancy time, the assumption of hot food or cold food is reflected in the mother’s health. As a result, such mental perception negatively affects their health [Cecil G. Helman: 1990].
As a developing country of the third world, most of the people here are suffered from extreme poverty. They suffer from malnutrition due to poverty. As a result women give birth to unhealthy babies. At present, in Bangladesh about 194 mothers die to give birth to per 1 lakh babies [Bangladesh Maternal Mortality & Healthcare Survey 2010].
In Bangladesh, health service facilities have been increased for 28% pregnant women. But still now 20 pregnant women are dying per day. This is high enough in quantity. To reduce the rate of death of pregnant women, it is necessary to consider the fact of the fulfillment of the scarcity of malnutrition with due importance.
In social reality, everyday, hundreds of unhealthy babies take birth due to illiteracy, lack of consciousness, malnutrition, lack of economic development & so on. So, the health of the mother depress naturally. To create the healthy birth and nation, it is necessary to ensure proper nutritious opportunity for mothers. Because every year thousand of mothers get death for malnutrition. Besides, it is noted that, here in Bangladesh, there exists various discriminations for providing nutrition services to women. Here the lives of women are predetermined under man controlled social system.
Here women food habit, weight, nutrition’s food takings etc all are established socially. Besides, various social rules & regulations are imposed specifically. Every year about 7 thousand pregnant women die. Among them, about 45% are affected from anemia during pregnancy & after birth. Today 50% women suffer from long term nutrition scarcity, due to which they become victim to malnutrition.
Safe maternity is a due right of a mother. It needs to be ensured. A pregnant women’s individual sensibility & social elements have to be adjusted. As much importance is pushed on mother health in the development of health service in third world, from that viewpoint the development of a healthy nation is targeted. So the subject of nutrition in pregnancy is coming repeatedly. Necessary efforts have been taken through research about the changes due to nutrition during pregnancy & how these are maintained in real life.
Causes of Selecting Research Location
Since the title or subject matter of my research is related with pregnant women, I have considered my own locality appropriate for accomplishing my research committee. I have selected my locality on the basis of its socio-economic condition because there will be less problems for collecting information. As I am familiar with the people of my locality I considered the fact that I can frankly deal with them and it would be helpful for information. Besides I have cherished on interest to work in my locality from my higher education life despite these, I have got advocacy & helpings from my family and neighbours while conducting my research activities.
Problem in Research
Bangladesh is a developing country. The most important prerequisite, for the development of any country, is to maintain the health & physical stability of it population. It puts an individual one step ahead with respect to his development. For this, proper health service for everyone is required and proper knowledge about nutrition is necessary for that service.
The natural stepping for nutrition knowledge starts through a mother’s health. The good health of a mother flows into her baby. Inversely, if mothers do not possess a good health, their future generation is structured as a weak nation. So, it is very much important to realize the nutrition factor of pregnant mothers.
Pregnancy is a common event in very society. The assumptions created on the basis of society wise pregnant women are considered natural. In this way, the malnutrition is also varied society wise. The pregnant nutrition is established on the basis of the sensibility of the individuals and the concept of pregnancy is also fixed in this way. This research is also important to know about pregnancy nutrition.
As in Bangladesh, there exists the concept of gender regarded nutrition. So, it needs to go to the depth to realize the matter of pregnant nutrition. To ensure proper pregnant nutrition, there remain various principles in the society. From those viewpoints, age, gender, education, poverty etc have become the fundamental criteria of nutrition knowledge. Besides, individual’s personal assumptions define the concept of nutrition in a new dimension. So, to ensure a secured maternity as well as to establish a healthy nation, it has become important to conceptualize the subject matters of nutrition and study them. Proper steps should be taken so that even a single mother in Bangladesh may not die due to malnutrition. For this purpose, we have to ensure proper nutrition services for mother and to consider the nutrition aspect from the viewpoint of a social element.
Objectives of Research
The determination of objectives in respect of research makes the basic target of research more clear. It creates the opportunity to represent the potential results. To make the research more understandable on the basis of scientific techniques, the researcher ascertains some objectives. The objectives of this research are the following:
i. To know how the concept of nutrition is to pregnant women.
ii. To realize what cultural elements contribute to the establishment of their concept about nutrition.
iii. To search for the way of how these cultural elements influence their practice regarding nutrition in real life.
Theoretical Framework
Structuralism believes that, the most important factor to maintain everything & society of the world is framework. In structuralism, the fundamental weapon to operate a society is framework centralized. So, every activity is revolving around the framework in a ruled manner. Overall, all practices in a society are held on the basis of structure. The main objective of structuralism is to realize how human’s mental world works through the analysis of various cultures. According to structuralism, man charts experiences & classifies them. This tendency is universal. Because this structural concept exists in brain & the structures of brains are homogeneous. Although here may be variations in terms of cultural manifests but their basic principles are same.
I have tried to realize whether the concepts of nutrition of a pregnant woman support the nutrition principles & how it creates the subject matter of nutrition during pregnancy according to the framework. Overall, here, the assumptions that exist in society regarding pregnancy nutrition are considered as framework and I have tried to understand how the assumptions are treated in their lives and how they influence a healthy birth.
Literature Review
Margaret Mid [1950] has accomplished research regarding cultural behaviour. She has conducted her research by anthropological & psychological techniques. According to science perception, nutrition is the selection of the right food & avoidance of wrong food. But this definition is not dispersed accordingly to the people of the society because of nutrition behaviour. There is not specific rule for selecting nutrition’s food. But nutrition is influenced by their mentality, thinking, fear, rules or prejudices. To select food & acquire nutrition’s knowledge, they put concern upon moral, scientific & habitual matters. After the Second World War, people were habituated to food habit & dietary patterns. This was happened due to the cultural habit. Mead indicated certain facets like various production system, preservation geographical area & communication system.
In Arapesh, meat is banned for adolesents & young’s. Here, proper nutrition’s food habit is very much important. During puberty, bad structured fruits are banned. Because it shares the food value with meat & created a opposite reaction in respect of nutrition & reproduction. Various researches show that, cultural framework or psychological behaviour is relevant to that behaviour. On the other hand, it is not possible to ignore various prohibition, structural food habit etc. Human assumptions on nutrition originate new food habits. This depends on realization power, environment & food culture etc.
For this reason, Australian aboriginal food patterns & nutrition practices are basically happened through environmental production or distribution. Because, they take meat only when somebody presents them some meat.
In Japan, wives take the offal food left by their husbands & children, where their husbands & children are take the better meals. But wines share that offal even with the pet dog. So, their nutrition method is created through a different food habit.
In America, nutrition food habit depends on individual preferences. Their concept about nutrition is created on the basis of food value, class, or various events. From the viewpoints of nutrition & modernism concept, the want to take milk mixed with alcohol & meat mixed with macaroni. They prefer the main beverage dish in dinner & protein in dusk. They prefer tomato & orange juice with breakfast. They select those food habits for personal mentality & opportunities. Although, in Mead’s research, the world’s different corners food habits & nutrition related matters are seen, dry matter related to pregnant nutrition is absent here. Keeping in mind about the whole research made by mead, I have tried to observe the cultural perception of pregnant nutrition.
[Cecil G. Helman: 1990] has said in Diet & Nutrition chapter, a pregnant women feels her food habit, breast increasing, ministration etc during her pregnancy. During this time she has to aroid certain foods in which the concepts of hot & cold food are important. These activities are operated from their mental condition. These sensibilities put bad effects on their pregnancy. In this research importance is put on nutrition through food during pregnancy. I have tried to find out various social elements related to nutrition from that point of view.
According to, Collier & Yanagisako [1987, Moore, 1980], No question has been arisen fill today, about the usefulness of social opinion regarding the creation of health of pregnant women. As women are related with reproduction, they are often compared with the nature & as men do creative tasks, they are treated as a part of culture. Here Collier, Yanagisako & Moore have shown obvious discrimination between men & women regarding health & nutrition, where women are considered to be unproductive & men are shown to be creative. In this research, I have tried to see the social foundations of pregnant nutrition very obviously from the view point of women health.
Sharman (1970) has shown the relationship between food beliefs & practices, income and nutrition basis respect. In this regard, he said about the social organization of homework. No specific subject matter about pregnant nutrition is founded in his research.
Franklin & Valdes (1979), saw in the project regarding Colombian mother & child health, the nutrition of a baby is related with the time given by its mother to if [Petto & Pelto: 1989: 84].
Kuman (1977), showed in his research, that, the condition of the nutrition of a child is related with its mother’s profession & income. He saw, the women & children associated with agriculture in Kerala, that during cultivation, adequate time is not given to the children so that the level of nutrition of the children decreases. TripP (1981) showed that, as the mother’s income is sufficient, her child’s nutrition level would have been adequate but not because, less time is given to the child.
Popkin & others [Popkin & Solon 1976, Popkin 1980] showed about the women in Filipine, the level of vitamin “A” is low for the children, because their mother’s do not stay at home as a result of which they do not green vegetables other foods containing Vitamin A. Moreover, as their mother’s are busy at outside works, house chores fall upon their shoulders. If can be said in this regard that, they (mothers) put importance on the level of workings but not on other cultural elements.
Thompson (1967) gave logic that, if is not important to emphasize only on time, but on virtue or other social or economical facts. That means, it is important to put emphasize by mixing individual, home works, community with time.
Farzana Sultana (1993), showed, in a survey taken on a poverty dominated population under the heading “Hindrance in taking health service” the limitations regarding taking health service for rural poor women. She put much importance on merely health instead of women nutrition’s perceptions or awareness. I tried to analyze pregnant nutrition from various out looking’s & social elementary viewpoints.
Validity & Research
This research work will be conducted by taking the cultural perceptions & outlooks of pregnant women in Shahebpara area with which family rules poverty, awareness, education etc are related. As the subject matter of the research is sensible, so women can avoid the real matter while giving information. Because women feel shame about their physical matters. In this regard to get an answer, triangulation is made. Besides, the mother-in-laws & husbands are convinced to clearly realize how pregnant nutrition is established in respect of socio-economic basis. Moreover, other problems hare been tried to be solved by the researcher through observation & conversation. Overall, as the researcher made the work in his own locality, he could gather information through free & easy conversation.
Research Methodology
I have talked with 15 pregnant women to conduct this research. Their ages are between (15-27). Besides, I have also talked with 3 mother-in-laws & 2 husbands. In this research rapport build up, sampling, questioning, interviewing, case study, focus group discussion & chart methods are used. For the purpose of researching, information is collected from Govt. health centre & from the houses of the participants. Due to the subject matter of the research, married women were selected. Among them, there were women including first time pregnancy second or third time pregnancy as sells as women who have passed the time of pregnancy. Above all, to know about the establishment of nutrition for pregnancy based on family or social affairs, conversation has been done with mother in laws & husbands.
Sources of Data
Information is collected from the initial source of research that means from fieldwork. On the basis of the information collected from fieldwork, the entire research is done. Besides, helps from various intermediary sources like Books Articles, Report, Journal etc have been taken.
Report Building
To collect informational for the research, I have emphasized to create good relation with others. For this, I have tried at first, to make a good relation with the pregnant women in my locality. I have shown courtesy, chatting, emphasize on their opinion and so on. I have tried to collect information from them very sincerely.
Observation
I have adopted techniques to collect information & have tried to make sure that the given information is correct. To co-inside with the uttered words, I have examined their environment, behaviour & face gesture. Because it is somewhat possible to understand the face condition that whether that it is adjusted or not this technique was very helpful. Observation method, thus, helps to get adequate information & examine their reliability.
Sampling
Sampling is very important for any research. It becomes easy to conduct research through sampling. An my research title is the cultural perception of nutrition of pregnant women, so I have selected women through sampling. I have selected 20 women through purposeful sampling. I have conducted homogenous sampling as the research was done for a specific class of people. Research is conducted by considering all the pregnant women in one category. After then, required information is collect through detailed conversation on the basis of homogenous group.
Focus Group Discussion
Focus group discussion is very useful to collect information for any research. To verify the collected information, collect, new information & examine the reliability of the information, this method is very useful. It has been performed according to the opinion of the participants through family health centre.
Case Study Method
Event investigation or event analysis is such a approach which the respondent give answer indetial to a particulars issue or particular event. It focuses many important or exceptional and comparative events, which are related to the research. This process explains these events. In this research the researcher includes 3 case studies.
Data Collection Tools
For any research, an important matter is technique adoption. Because success of the research depends largely on this technique the technique I have used are as follows:
i) Questioning: In this research, both open-end questions and close end questions are used.
ii) Informal Interview: Interviewing is very important for any research. I have applied informal interviewing tool. That means, no hard and fast matter based conversation is done. By introducing with one another the conversation is done. In this way, it becomes possible to reach at my target. As more reliable information can be collected through informal interview in a controlled manner, so that, I have adopted this tool.
Besides, for one interviewee, the following facts got importance-
a) Formal: A predetermined interviewee was selected. Required information is collected through formal questions.
b) Informal: Through various relevant conservations, information is collected from the interviewee. Questions, which she feels hesitated or does not want to answer, are conducted through informal questioning.
Other tools
i) Use of Note Book.
ii) Diary Writing.
iii) Tape Recorder.
Limitation of the Research
Though a plan and labour include in research but it has some limitation. As I am a student so in a schedule time the research must be completed. To conduct this research researcher face various difficulties.
First, be a male researcher, women feel nervous and confused to answer the question of pregnancy nutrition.
Second, the people of study area just imagined that the researcher is involved in a development organization. They argued many question to the researcher as this process if there is any chance to get economic facilities, when they knew this research is conduct only for academic purpose they lose their curiosity to answer the question.
Third, when researcher starts his conversation to the family. For this pregnant women answer the question according to guardian. This is a problem for research. For honorable relation, in which the guardians reply the answer, the pregnant women agree with this. For that actual data has become sacred.
Fourth, to conduct this research many person ask unrealivant question which makes a researcher very unsuitable. Moreover it wastes many times. In context pregnant women ask many curious question as like why go do this work? What is your benefit? What is their benefit etc?
Fifth, for conservatism the chief male member of any family impose restriction to pregnant women to answer the question. Moreover they thought this interview might create much problem in future, so they avoid this question. It was very unsuitable for research.
Six, most of the time the pregnant women are busy with their daily livelihood work. For this in several times it is not possible to take a interview with them. In context the researcher may have to go the same respondent in 2/3 times.
Seventh, as a period of pregnancy is a very sensitive time in a women life. Most of the time they staid inside of the room. In problem of physical movement or illness, the presence of pregnant women out side of the house is very rare. So as a male research face many problem to conduct an interview. It many times it is not possible to inter directly to the women room.
Eight, where as the researcher are student and he conducting his research in a sensitive issue, so many mistaken, has occurred in this research. For this the maturity of the research may incomplete. Moreover the lack of knowledge or lack of expertness is prominent limitation to this research.
Culture, Perception, Nutrition, Pregnant, Women, Limitation, Pregnancy, Population, Bangladesh, Maternal, Mortality, Healthcare, Survey, Malnutrition, Theoretical, Framework, Literature, Methodology, Observation, Discussion, Data, Collection, Tools
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