CULTURAL INFLUENCE OF HEALTH-SEEKING BEHAVIOR AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN IN BAYELSA STATE

Abstract

Health Education motivates mostly pregnant women to adopt health-promoting behaviors by providing appropriate knowledge and helping to develop positive attitude.Maternal health outcomes and indicators in Bayelsa State, are some of the worst in Nigeria, with many women and girls losing their lives or becoming incapacitated as a result of pregnancy and childbirth complications. Maternal morbidities and mortalities are preventable with the availability and regular utilization of functional maternal healthcare services. As one of the major determinants of the utilization of maternal healthcare services, maternal health-seeking behavior goes beyond individual decision, but a complexity of socio-cultural and economic factors determining women’s utilization of such services in Bayelsa State. Relying on literature on the health-seeking behaviour of women in the region, this paper offers contextual explanations for women’s low utilization of maternal healthcare services in the state. Bayelsa State is a predominantlyIjaws and Christian society, with a culture that is guided by the Ijaw tradition. Use of traditional medicine, traditional birth attendants, high adherence to spiritual cultural beliefs and practices, family and community influence, and interplay between traditional and modern healthcareare among the major factors impeding utilization of maternal healthcare services among women in Bayelsa State. The paper thus, recommends that, in addition to making health education more accessible to pregnant women, interventions towards increasing utilization of maternal healthcare services must inevitably target husbands, being the key factor in determining healthcare-seeking behavior within households.