Maternal and Child Health Care Malpractices in Pakistan: A Qualitative Study of Mothers’ Experiences

Abstract

In Pakistan, despite several interventions and strategies, the rate of maternal and neonatal mortality remains high. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, there are few studies on maternal and child health care. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the mother and child health care social and cultural malpractices in Faisalabad, Pakistan. A qualitative research was conducted with four focus group discussions (FGD) with 40 mothers was conducted purposively. Data were analyzed deductively by using the thematic analysis. This study results shows that child-mother healthcare malpractices were common in Pakistan. This study suggested that there is an immediate need to attention to traditional childbirth and newborn care practices like breastfeeding and nutrition, poor health seeking behaviors of families, and poor access to health care dunging pregnancy.