Impact of home visits to pregnant women and their spouses on gender norms and dynamics in Bauchi State, Nigeria: Narratives from visited men and women

BACKGROUND: Maternal and newborn child health are priority concerns in Bauchi State, northern Nigeria. Increased male involvement in reproductive health is recommended by the World Health Organization. A trial of a program of universal home visits to pregnant women and their spouses, with an intention to increase male involvement in pregnancy and childbirth, showed improvements in actionable risk factors and in maternal morbidity. We used a narrative technique to explore experiences of the visits and their effect on gender roles and dynamics within the households. METHODS: Trained fieldworkers collected narratives of change from 23 visited women and 21 visited men. After translation of the stories into English, we conducted an inductive thematic analysis to examine the impact of the visits on gender norms and dynamics. RESULTS: The analysis indicated that the visits improved men’s support for antenatal care, immunization, and seeking help for danger signs, increased spousal communication, and led to changes in perceptions about gender violence and promoted non-violent gender relationships. However, although some stories described increased spousal communication, they did not mention that this translated into shared decision-making or increased autonomy for women. Many of the men’s stories described a continuing paternalistic, male-dominant position in decision-making. CONCLUSIONS: Few studies have examined the gender-transformative potential of interventions to promote male involvement in reproductive health; our analysis provides some initial insights into this.