Physiological and anatomical concepts about reproduction held by traditional midwives in Southern Oaxaca differ considerably from those of biomedicine. Government training courses for traditional midwives disregard these deep-seated differences, and also the underlying conceptual rationale of ethno-obstetrics. These courses constantly reinforce and actively promote the biomedical model of care. But rural midwives, despite these training courses, do not substantially change their obstetrical vision and ways. The strength of their own authoritative knowledge, fully shared by the women and men of their communities, allows them to continue their traditional style of care, despite pressures to conform to biomedical values, beliefs, and practices. Suggestions for a mutual accommodation of biomedical and midwifery approaches to prenatal care include training medical personnel in ethno-obstetric techniques and rationales, teaching midwives basic medical interventions, addressing in intervention programs all social actors participating in reproductive decision making, and adopting an interdisciplinary approach that includes nonmedical aspects of maternal care.
BackgroundHealth system strengthening is critical to ensure the integration and scaling-up of priority health promotion, disease prevention and control programs. Normative guidelines are available to address health system function imbalances while strategic and analytical frameworks address critical functions in complex systems. Tacit knowledge-based health system constructs can help identify actors' perspectives, contributing to improve strengthening strategies. Using maternal health as an example, this paper maps and analyses the health system functions that critical actors charged with formulating and delivering priority health programs consider important for their success.MethodsUsing concept mapping qualitative and statistical methods, health system functions were mapped for different categories of actors in high maternal mortality states of Mexico and at the federal level. Functions within and across maps were analyzed for degree of classification, importance, feasibility and coding.ResultsHospital infrastructure and human resource training are the most prominent functions in the maternal health system, associated to federal efforts to support emergency obstetric care. Health policy is a highly diffuse function while program development, intercultural and community participation and social networks are clearly stated although less focused and with lower perceived importance. The importance of functions is less correlated between federal and state decision makers, between federal decision makers and reproductive health/local health area program officers and between state decision makers and system-wide support officers. Two sets of oppositions can be observed in coding across functions: health sector vs. social context; and given structures vs. manageable processes.ConclusionsConcept mapping enabled the identification of critical functions constituting adaptive maternal health systems, including aspects of actor perspectives that are seldom included in normative and analytical frameworks. Important areas of divergence across actors' perceptions were identified to target capacity strengthening efforts towards better integrated, performing health systems.
Priority problems focused on emergency obstetric care (EmOC), specifically: inadequate financial resources (Guerrero), substandard training among available EmOC providers (State of Mexico), inefficiencies in existing EmOC networks (Oaxaca) and inadequate knowledge of, and/or compliance to, standard EmOC protocols (Veracruz). The literature review confirmed the pertinence of problems previously identified by COP through conceptual mapping. CONCLUSIONS. The four COP showed a high level of congruency between their original perception of problems in the states' health systems and international scientific evidence. Identified problems and their reformulation based on evidence help identify solutions adaptable to local contexts.
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