Praying until death: apostolicism, delays and maternal mortality in zimbabwe
Loading...
Date
2016-08-10
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
PLOS ONE
Abstract
Religion affects people’s daily lives by solving social problems, although it creates others.
Female sexual and reproductive health are among the issues most affected by religion.
Apostolic sect members in Zimbabwe have been associated with higher maternal mortality.
We explored apostolic beliefs and practices on maternal health using 15 key informant interviews
in 5 purposively selected districts of Zimbabwe. Results show that apostolicism promotes
high fertility, early marriage, non-use of contraceptives and low or non-use of hospital
care. It causes delays in recognizing danger signs, deciding to seek care, reaching and
receiving appropriate health care. The existence of a customized spiritual maternal health
system demonstrates a huge desire for positive maternal health outcomes among apostolics.
We conclude that apostolic beliefs and practices exacerbate delays between onset of
maternal complications and receiving help, thus increasing maternal risk. We recommend
complementary and adaptive approaches that address the maternal health needs of apostolics
in a religiously sensitive manner.
Description
This is
an open access article distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author and source are credited.
Keywords
Citation
Dzodzo M. K. et al.(2016) Praying until Death: Apostolicism, Delays and Maternal Mortality in Zimbabwe. PLOS ONE 11(8): e0160170. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0160170