Cargando…

Racism and access to maternal health care among garo indigenous women in Bangladesh: A qualitative descriptive study

Racism as social determinant of health significantly affects Indigenous women’s maternal healthcare access. This study uses Jones’ ‘Three Levels of Racism’ theory and an intersectional lens to explore how racism shapes the experience of maternal health care access among Garo Indigenous women in Bang...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Chowdhury, Suban Kumar
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10688635/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38032894
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294710
_version_ 1785152203141414912
author Chowdhury, Suban Kumar
author_facet Chowdhury, Suban Kumar
author_sort Chowdhury, Suban Kumar
collection PubMed
description Racism as social determinant of health significantly affects Indigenous women’s maternal healthcare access. This study uses Jones’ ‘Three Levels of Racism’ theory and an intersectional lens to explore how racism shapes the experience of maternal health care access among Garo Indigenous women in Bangladesh. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 women of diverse backgrounds and pregnancy statuses using snowball sampling. Thematic analysis, incorporating inductive and deductive approaches, was employed for data analysis. The findings reveal a significant deviation from Jones’ theory regarding the level of internalized racism within the specific context of Garo Indigenous women’s experiences. Jones’ theory usually focuses on how racism is internalized due to institutional and personally-mediated factors. On the contrary, this study uncovers a unique theme: ‘women agency.’ This theme emerges as a robust response among the Garo Indigenous women to their encounters with institutional and personally-mediated racism, highlighting their cultural resistance and resilience. The findings suggest that the complex relationship between these two forms of racism contributes to the strengthening of agency among Garo Indigenous women. Their agency stems from avoiding hospitals that disrespect their culture, manifesting their cultural resistance practice against the encountered racism at the institutional and relational levels. To increase biomedical healthcare access among Garo Indigenous women, it is recommended to address racism through intercultural competency training with the ‘cultural safety’ ‘cultural humility’ approach. This approach would foster inclusivity and empowerment, recognizing the agency of Garo women in healthcare decisions. Additionally, it would facilitate constructive dialogues between clinicians and Garo Indigenous women, acknowledging the shared experiences of racism within the latter group.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10688635
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-106886352023-12-01 Racism and access to maternal health care among garo indigenous women in Bangladesh: A qualitative descriptive study Chowdhury, Suban Kumar PLoS One Research Article Racism as social determinant of health significantly affects Indigenous women’s maternal healthcare access. This study uses Jones’ ‘Three Levels of Racism’ theory and an intersectional lens to explore how racism shapes the experience of maternal health care access among Garo Indigenous women in Bangladesh. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 women of diverse backgrounds and pregnancy statuses using snowball sampling. Thematic analysis, incorporating inductive and deductive approaches, was employed for data analysis. The findings reveal a significant deviation from Jones’ theory regarding the level of internalized racism within the specific context of Garo Indigenous women’s experiences. Jones’ theory usually focuses on how racism is internalized due to institutional and personally-mediated factors. On the contrary, this study uncovers a unique theme: ‘women agency.’ This theme emerges as a robust response among the Garo Indigenous women to their encounters with institutional and personally-mediated racism, highlighting their cultural resistance and resilience. The findings suggest that the complex relationship between these two forms of racism contributes to the strengthening of agency among Garo Indigenous women. Their agency stems from avoiding hospitals that disrespect their culture, manifesting their cultural resistance practice against the encountered racism at the institutional and relational levels. To increase biomedical healthcare access among Garo Indigenous women, it is recommended to address racism through intercultural competency training with the ‘cultural safety’ ‘cultural humility’ approach. This approach would foster inclusivity and empowerment, recognizing the agency of Garo women in healthcare decisions. Additionally, it would facilitate constructive dialogues between clinicians and Garo Indigenous women, acknowledging the shared experiences of racism within the latter group. Public Library of Science 2023-11-30 /pmc/articles/PMC10688635/ /pubmed/38032894 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294710 Text en © 2023 Suban Kumar Chowdhury https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Chowdhury, Suban Kumar
Racism and access to maternal health care among garo indigenous women in Bangladesh: A qualitative descriptive study
title Racism and access to maternal health care among garo indigenous women in Bangladesh: A qualitative descriptive study
title_full Racism and access to maternal health care among garo indigenous women in Bangladesh: A qualitative descriptive study
title_fullStr Racism and access to maternal health care among garo indigenous women in Bangladesh: A qualitative descriptive study
title_full_unstemmed Racism and access to maternal health care among garo indigenous women in Bangladesh: A qualitative descriptive study
title_short Racism and access to maternal health care among garo indigenous women in Bangladesh: A qualitative descriptive study
title_sort racism and access to maternal health care among garo indigenous women in bangladesh: a qualitative descriptive study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10688635/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38032894
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294710
work_keys_str_mv AT chowdhurysubankumar racismandaccesstomaternalhealthcareamonggaroindigenouswomeninbangladeshaqualitativedescriptivestudy