“We struggle with the earth everyday”: parents’ perspectives on the capabilities for healthy child growth in haor region of Bangladesh

Abstract

Background Childhood stunting is an important public health problem in the haor region of Bangladesh. Haor areas are located in the north-eastern part of the country and are vulnerable to seasonal flooding. The key objective of this study is to identify the capabilities of the parents and their children that shape multidimensional child growth outcomes in the haor region in the first thousand days of life. Methods A qualitative study was conducted in two sub-districts of the haor region, including in Derai in the Sunamganj district and Baniachang in the Habiganj district. We facilitated eight focus group discussions with the parents of children under age two. To allow us to explore individual stories, we conducted in-depth interviews with four fathers and four mothers. A capability framework to child growth was used in shaping the interview guides and analysing the data. Results The findings were categorised at four levels: a) capabilities for the child, b) capabilities for the mother, c) capabilities for the father, and d) capabilities at the household level. At the child’s level, the parents discussed the capability to stay away from disease and to eat well, the capability to stay happy and playful, and the capability to be born with God’s blessings and the hereditary traits needed to grow in size. The mothers frequently mentioned the capability to stay healthy and nourished, to stay away from violence, and to practice autonomy in allocating time for child care. The fathers stressed the earning opportunities that are affected by long-term flooding and the loss of agricultural productivity. At the household level, they discussed the capability to live in a safe shelter, to be mobile, to overcome their struggles with the earth, and to have a source of safe drinking water. Conclusions The capability framework for child growth helped identify relevant capabilities in the haor region. These findings can guide discussions with communities and policy makers about developing programmes and interventions aimed at enhancing the identified capabilities for child growth in this vulnerable region.

Perceptions and possible solutions for violence against children among mothers of under five

“…2 A study by Chakraborthy et al reported in their study that the mothers frequently mentioned the capability to stay healthy and nourished, to stay away from violence, and to practice autonomy in allocating time for child care. 7 The results obtained were the categories of the perception of women on consequences of child violence as Behavioural issues, developmental issues, justifying abuse and few were not aware. A study by Al Odhayani et al, concluded the following results in line with the current study as child abuse is a common problem worldwide, and its physical and psychosocial effects are felt by abused children, their families, and their communities.…”

Maternal and Child Survival in Haor Region in Bangladesh. An Analysis of Fathers’ Capabilities to Save the Future

“…Initially, and as published elsewhere, we identified capabilities for healthy child growth at the child, parental, and household level. A father’s capability to save the lives of mothers and children, expressed as “the capability to save the future” emerged as an important opportunity to secure maternal and child survival [ 24 ]. Maternal and child survival are thus some of the core capabilities for healthy child growth.…”

“…In haor areas, lack of resources, extreme weather conditions, and parents’ social norms underlie the high mortality rates both for mothers and their children. Fathers of haor describe their role in achieving a healthy delivery as the capability “to save the future” and identified it as a key dimension of child growth [ 24 ]. In this paper, we focus on this particular paternal capability “to save the future”, using the Capability Framework for Child Growth (CFCG) for its further analysis.…”

Measuring capabilities in health and physical activity promotion: a systematic review.

“…Articles reporting on studies that directly measured capabilities without developing or validating any tools for future use were only found among the qualitative studies and secondary data analyses. Qualitative measurement was performed either by semi-structured interviews [56,57,63,64]…”

“…The major measurement properties of the different tools are shown in Table 4. Sample sizes among the qualitative and mixed methods approaches varied between n=12 [58] and n=64 [64], while numbers were naturally much larger for the secondary data analyses (between n=2,814 [60] and n=25,180 [59]). Target groups varied widely, from adults in general [23,25,28,57,76], children under the age of two [64], young adults [59] and older adults [24,61,63] to adults with special conditions or characteristics [30-34, 56, 58] For the ICECAP-O, six articles reported on the intended target group of adults over 65 [35,36,40,65,66,71].…”