Raising Women’s Reproductive Health Awareness: A Community-Based Intervention Program in Jordan

Abstract

Over the past 30 years, there has been a gradual shift in the way women's reproductive health issues are addressed by the international development community, as seen in maternal and child health programs, family planning efforts, and the Safe Motherhood initiative. As a continuation of this paradigm shift, ensuring women's reproductive health needs are met throughout the life cycle was named as one of the key priorities of the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994.1 However, ensuring reproductive health care services and information are available does not necessarily ensure that women make use of these services. In order for reproductive health services to be utilized, women need to know when they are in need of, and how to use this care. Health awareness programs are one way of empowering women with this knowledge about their reproductive health and available health services.The issue then arises as to where health awareness programs can most effectively occur in the local context. Primary health care relies on health awareness messages being passed between health workers at any level (from physicians to community health workers) to members of the community.2 In a developing country like Jordan where most health care services are provided to women via maternal and child health (MCH) programs, there are a number of barriers to providers' carrying out health promotion with patients. The few studies that have been conducted on health promotion in health care settings in Jordan indicate that the providers' time, knowledge, and negative attitudes towards health promotion pose barriers to health information exchange between provider and patient. 3,4 In one local study, all nurses and midwives working in a Northern Governorate's primary health care andMCHcenterswereaskedabouttheiropinionsregarding health promotion. Fifty percent of nurses and midwives participating in the study stated they do not have sufficient time to work on health promotion, despite that 78% of the respondents stated they were the most appropriate people to be involved in health promotion.3 Just over 50% of midwives and nurses went on to respond that they felt that health education was "guilt-inducing" and boring, with slightly more respondents stating that societal and cultural values influence Jordanian lifestyles to the degree that health education by a health professional cannot change local practices. 3 Previously, Al-Qutob and Mawajdeh 4 conducted a comprehensive survey in MCH facilities in a northern Jordanian city. The researchers found that although all 31 directors of the facilities stated that health education was an integral part of the MCH services they offered to women, 74% of the directors felt providers in their centers did not have enough training in health education. This lack of specific training was made apparent when more than half of the pregnant women receiving prenatal care from the centers stated they were dissatisfied with the quality of information given to them by physicians and midwives. 4 Giv...