Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Apr 20;15(1):68.
doi: 10.1186/s12978-018-0512-9.

Perceptions on male involvement in pregnancy and childbirth in Masasi District, Tanzania: a qualitative study

Stephen Oswald Maluka  1 , Apollonia Kasege Peneza  2
Affiliations

Perceptions on male involvement in pregnancy and childbirth in Masasi District, Tanzania: a qualitative study

Stephen Oswald Maluka et al. Reprod Health. .

Abstract

Background: Despite the efforts to promote male involvement in maternal and child health, studies in low and middle income countries have reported that male participation is still low. While factors that hinder male partners from participating in maternal and child healthcare are well documented, there is dearth of studies on local perceptions about male involvement in pregnancy and delivery care. The main objective of this study was to explore local perceptions about male involvement in pregnancy and childbirth in Tanzania.

Methods: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with key respondents and a thematic approach was used to analyse data.

Results: The findings revealed that women preferred to be accompanied by their partners to the clinics, especially on the first antenatal care visit. Men did not wish to be more actively involved in antenatal care and delivery. Respondents perceived men as being breadwinners and their main role in pregnancy and child birth was to support their partners financially. The key factors which hindered male participation were traditional gender roles at home, fear of HIV testing and unfavourable environment in health facilities.

Conclusion: This study concludes that traditional gender roles and health facility environment presented barriers to male involvement. District health managers should strengthen efforts to improve gender relations, promote men's understanding of the familial and social roles in reproductive health issues as well as provide male friendly services. However, these efforts need to be supported by women and the society as a whole.

Keywords: Male involvement; Maternal and child health; Pregnancy and childbirth; Tanzania.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study got approval from the University of Dar es Salaam. The research clearance was also approved by the regional and district authorities where the study was conducted. Verbal consent was obtained from respondents. Verbal consent was used because we did not want to exclude potential respondents that were not able to read and write. Respondents were informed of their right to withdraw from the study any time they wished and were also assured of confidentiality of any information deemed necessary to be treated so. All interviews were audio-recorded after getting consent of the respondents. The recordings of the interviews and transcripts were only accessible to the researchers.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

References

    1. Davis J, Luchters S, Holmes W. Men and maternal and newborn health: benefits, harms, challenges and potential strategies for engaging men. Melbourne: Compass: Women’s and Children’s Health Knowledge Hub; 2012.
    1. Falnes EF, Moland KM, Tylleskär T, de Paoli MM, Msuya SE, Engebretsen IM. “It is her responsibility”: partner involvement in prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV programmes, northern Tanzania. J Int AIDS Soc. 2011;14(1):21. doi: 10.1186/1758-2652-14-21. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Davis J, Luchters S, Holmes W. Men and maternal and newborn health: benefits, harms, challenges and potential strategies for engaging men: Melbourne, Centre for International Health, Burnet Institute; 2012.
    1. Mohlala BK, Boily MC, Gregson S. The forgotten half of the equation: randomized controlled trial of a male invitation to attend couple voluntary counselling and testing. AIDS. 2011;25(12):1535–1541. doi: 10.1097/QAD.0b013e328348fb85. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Draper J. Whose welfare in the labour room? A discussion of the increasing trend of fathers’ birth attendance. Midwifery. 1997;13(3) - PubMed