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BMC Women's Health
Published in: BMC Women's Health 1/2010

Open Access 01-12-2010 | Research article

Women, poverty and adverse maternal outcomes in Nairobi, Kenya

Authors: Chimaraoke O Izugbara, David P Ngilangwa

Published in: BMC Women's Health | Issue 1/2010

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Abstract

Background

The link between poverty and adverse maternal outcomes has been studied largely by means of quantitative data. We explore poor urban Kenyan women's views and lived experiences of the relationship between economic disadvantage and unpleasant maternal outcomes.

Method

Secondary analysis of focus group discussions and in-depth individual interviews data with women in two slums in Nairobi, Kenya.

Results

Urban poor women in Nairobi associate poverty with adverse maternal outcomes. However, their accounts and lived experiences of the impact of poverty on maternal outcomes underscore dynamics other than those typically stressed in the extant literature. To them, poverty primarily generates adverse maternal outcomes by exposing women to exceedingly hard and heavy workloads during pregnancy and the period surrounding it; to intimate partner violence; as well as to inhospitable and unpleasant treatment by service providers.

Conclusions

Poverty has wider and more intricate implications for maternal outcomes than are acknowledged in extant research. To deliver their expected impact, current efforts to promote better maternal outcomes must be guided by a more thorough perspective of the link between women's livelihoods and their health and wellbeing.
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Metadata
Title
Women, poverty and adverse maternal outcomes in Nairobi, Kenya
Authors
Chimaraoke O Izugbara
David P Ngilangwa
Publication date
01-12-2010
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Women's Health / Issue 1/2010
Electronic ISSN: 1472-6874
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6874-10-33

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