Conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas interculturales en los cuidados postparto de las comadronas de Tarqui, 2017

Abstract

Background: Nowadays, the maternal mortality rate during postpartum is a public health problem, women from mainly rural populations still performing home birth with the help of midwives. For this fact, the World Health Organization has suggested as one of the lines of action to train midwives who actively provide their care services to mothers.

General objective: to determine the knowledge, attitudes and intercultural practices in the postpartum care of midwives from Tarqui Parish, 2017.

Methodology: it is a qualitative study, carried out in a focus group of 10 midwives from Tarqui Parish, 2017; that meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria. An interview was applied based on the questions of investigation and determination of the problem and its registration through a tape recorder. The data obtained through the interview were transcribed into Word program without modifying the words used by midwives. The interpretation and analysis was carried out through Atlas Ti .7 program with its respective categories, citations, codes and memos.

Results: the knowledge possessed by the midwives of Tarqui who participated in the research comes mainly from empiricism. There is a clear understanding of the pathologies and complications around childbirth and according to their worldview that has been transmitted from generation to generation, they deal mostly with medicinal plants considering the heterogeneity of the parturients and the cases. The continuation of rituals with their respective meanings is also evident, although signs of modernity are also visible, which has also caused their attitudes to form around the families that come to them and the Local Health System. According to this research, the ultimate goal of the midwives is to achieve the quick recovery of the mother and ensure the health of the newborn