{"id":3997,"date":"2021-08-13T12:13:42","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T12:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/?p=3997"},"modified":"2021-08-13T12:10:19","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T12:10:19","slug":"innovative-study-focuses-on-malawian-womens-perceptions-of-fertility-difficulties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/innovative-study-focuses-on-malawian-womens-perceptions-of-fertility-difficulties","title":{"rendered":"Innovative study focuses on Malawian women\u2019s perceptions of fertility difficulties"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Malawi<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Young women in Malawi who reported difficulties conceiving and\/or carrying a child to term turned to traditional healers, churches and mosques, as well as medical clinics for help, says new research from Lancaster University.<\/p>\n

The paper looks at women\u2019s own assessments of their ability to conceive and carry a pregnancy to term \u2013 that is, self-identified infertility \u2013 in Malawi. It considers both the characteristics of young women who report infertility and, among these women, what kind of help-seeking strategies they employ.<\/p>\n

Dr Jasmine Fledderjohann\u2019s research \u2018Self-reported Fertility Impairments and Help-Seeking Strategies Among Young Women in Malawi\u2019 is published today in the Global Public Health Journal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis study is innovative because it focuses on women\u2019s own perceptions of fertility impairments, rather than measures based on women\u2019s fertility histories,\u201d says Dr Fledderjohann.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is important because women\u2019s own assessments of their ability to conceive and carry a pregnancy to term often don\u2019t align with what measures based on fertility histories would suggest. People act based on their perceptions, and it\u2019s essential to consider women\u2019s own views of their bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

She explains that because it is a population-based sample \u2013 rather than a clinic-based sample \u2013 it also includes women \u2013 often less privileged women \u2013 who may not access clinical spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the results are also innovative because they indicate that use of multiple help-seeking strategies is common \u2013 an insight that is not possible using facility-based samples that only focus on one kind of help-seeking,\u201d adds Dr Fledderjohann.<\/p>\n

The paper analyses survey data for 1,349 Malawian women aged 16-26 to explore the prevalence and predictors of self-reported difficulties conceiving and\/or carrying a pregnancy to term and help-seeking strategies.<\/p>\n

Although it is a fairly young sample, nearly 13% of those who had ever tried to conceive reported experiencing a fertility impairment. Some women as young as 16 reported a fertility impairment.<\/p>\n

The older a woman was, the more likely she was to report a fertility impairment. On the other hand, more highly educated women and those with more living children were less likely to report an impairment.<\/p>\n

Of women who reported an impairment, 85.5% sought help. Nearly half of these (47.9%) sought help from a hospital or clinic, and a large fraction (44.4%) went to a traditional healer.<\/p>\n

A further quarter (24.8%) reported praying or visiting a church or mosque to seek help conceiving or carrying a pregnancy to term. There is overlap in these figures because more than one-quarter employed multiple help-seeking strategies.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of the existing literature looks at only one form of help-seeking at a time, but these findings highlight that a large minority of women use multiple help-seeking strategies, not just one,\u201d says Dr Fledderjohann.<\/p>\n

Infertility is commonly defined in clinical settings as the inability to conceive or maintain a pregnancy after 12+ months of regular intercourse. However, having too few children is itself defined as infertility in some sociocultural settings, while having more children may reduce the social pressure to conceive again.<\/p>\n

One-in-four couples in the Global South experience infertility, with some of the highest rates of infertility in the world found in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n

Infertility can have devastating psychosocial and economic effects, including elevated levels of depression, anxiety, grief, stigmatization, domestic violence, marital discord, poverty, lower quality of life and well-being, poorer health, and low self-esteem.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking treatment and support available to individuals who struggle to conceive is therefore vital not only for securing reproductive health, but also for improving health and well-being more broadly,\u201d explains Dr. Fledderjohann. Yet evidence on help-seeking strategies of individuals in sub-Saharan Africa who self-identify as having difficulties conceiving is rare.<\/p>\n

The availability and quality of biomedical tests and treatments for infertility has been growing in SSA, and both men and women are increasingly using clinical services for fertility impairments. However, infertility remains a neglected public health issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cExamining help-seeking strategies in isolation (for example, using clinic-based samples and focusing on biomedical responses) provides an incomplete picture of the range of strategies with which women who perceive an impairment may engage,\u201d concludes Dr Fledderjohann.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. Young women in Malawi who reported difficulties conceiving and\/or carrying a child to term turned to traditional healers, churches and mosques, as well as medical clinics for help, says new research from Lancaster University. The paper looks at women\u2019s own assessments of their ability to conceive and carry a pregnancy to term […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":3996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12],"tags":[233,371,227,234,1705,385,1021],"class_list":["post-3997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-health","tag-malawi","tag-pregnant-women","tag-research","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nInnovative study focuses on Malawian women\u2019s perceptions of fertility difficulties - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Young women in Malawi who reported difficulties conceiving and\/or carrying a child to term turned to traditional healers ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/innovative-study-focuses-on-malawian-womens-perceptions-of-fertility-difficulties\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Innovative study focuses on Malawian women\u2019s perceptions of fertility difficulties\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Young women in Malawi who reported difficulties conceiving and\/or carrying a child to term turned to traditional healers ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/innovative-study-focuses-on-malawian-womens-perceptions-of-fertility-difficulties\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-13T12:13:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/08\/img-611660f614023.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"530\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/innovative-study-focuses-on-malawian-womens-perceptions-of-fertility-difficulties#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/innovative-study-focuses-on-malawian-womens-perceptions-of-fertility-difficulties\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Innovative study focuses on Malawian women\u2019s perceptions of fertility difficulties\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-13T12:13:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/innovative-study-focuses-on-malawian-womens-perceptions-of-fertility-difficulties\"},\"wordCount\":683,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/innovative-study-focuses-on-malawian-womens-perceptions-of-fertility-difficulties#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/08\/img-611660f614023.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Malawi\",\"Health\",\"Malawi\",\"Pregnant women\",\"Research\",\"women\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/innovative-study-focuses-on-malawian-womens-perceptions-of-fertility-difficulties#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/innovative-study-focuses-on-malawian-womens-perceptions-of-fertility-difficulties\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/innovative-study-focuses-on-malawian-womens-perceptions-of-fertility-difficulties\",\"name\":\"Innovative study focuses on Malawian women\u2019s perceptions of fertility difficulties - 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