- 442 views
- 752 downloads
Access to Reproductive Health Care for Internally Displaced Women in Northern Nigeria: A Critical Ethnography
-
- Author / Creator
- Amodu, Oluwakemi
-
In Nigeria, Boko Haram terrorists and Herdsmen have forcibly displaced over one million women from their homes. These women are living in precarious circumstances with limited access to essential services. Grey literature shows that displaced women are predisposed to rape and unintended pregnancies. Little is known about how these women access reproductive healthcare. My doctoral research addresses this gap in knowledge. Using a critical ethnography research design founded on feminist intersectionality theory, my doctoral dissertation examines access to reproductive healthcare for internally displaced women living in a relief settlement in Northern Nigeria. Thirty-nine participants including women, health service providers and policy makers were recruited for the study. Imperative reproductive health concerns identified among women include widespread urogenital infection symptoms and noticeable high rate of childbearing associated with a need to replace children lost to terrorist attacks. There were limited health care resources and services at the available health centers reflecting broader structural challenges in the health sector. Women navigated this limitation by seeking care with local midwives and a patent medicine vendor. The Nigerian government is overly reliant on aid agencies to support displaced women’s health needs. As funding to humanitarian agencies is scaled back, displaced women are left to depend on grossly inefficient primary health care facilities. The findings of this research are invaluable to Ministries and institutions on the need to develop appropriate policies and guidelines to address the reproductive health needs of internally displaced women. My work is aligned with the United Nations Sustainability Development’s broad goal “to leave no one behind” by prioritizing issues affecting the health and wellbeing of the most marginalized persons around the world.
-
- Graduation date
- Fall 2020
-
- Type of Item
- Thesis
-
- Degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
-
- License
- Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.