The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #58946

R. Cruz Begay, DrPH, Health Promotion, Northern Arizona University, PO Box 15095, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5095, 928 523-6344, cruz.begay@nau.edu

The author spent four years interviewing 22 women on the Navajo Indian Reservation who had given birth at home, before hospital birth was a widespread practice. These women were past childbearing age at the time of the interviews, having had children in the 1940’s and 1950’s. In addition the author interviewed many of the women’s husbands, as well as lay midwives, traditional healers, and over 50 Navajo women of childbirth age about their childbirth experiences. Ethnographic methodology was used to elucidate cultural aspects of childbirth and the roles that key persons played in the experience. This is a presentation of the ethnographic data and description of non-hospital childbirth practices. It also identifies cultural elements in childbirth that modern Navajo women practice, though they give birth in the Indian Health Service hospital. There are a number of implications for contemporary childbirth and prenatal care service providers, both for those providing services to Native American populations as well as other populations.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Describe cultural aspects of childbirth on the Navajo Indian reservation based upon oral histories of Navajo women giving birth before the widespread use of hospitals for childbirth.
• 2. Identify cultural elements of the childbirth experience of modern Navajo women on the reservation today, with implications for prenatal care and the cultural aspects of childbirth in general.

Keywords: American Indians, Maternal Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Indian Health Service
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.