Various cultural factors are imperative to the issue. Cultural requirements that promote home delivery through the assistance of traditional midwives have been identified as a major impediment to scaling down the number of new infections from mother to children. This is propagated by the failure to use virus suppressing drugs, and this disposes the child to diseases. Also, over reliance on the traditional methods of treatment especially in the developing countries makes it difficult to diagnose the condition among the mothers. Therefore, the preventive measures are not taken, and this has been a contributing cultural factor to new infections.
There are some communities which hold on the cultural belief that mother’s milk should not be denied to the newborns at any cost. It is noteworthy that this is a consequence of lack of information on the vulnerability of children to infected body fluid with milk included. Also, women may not be in a position to make imperative health decisions due to the patriarchal nature of the society. For instance, a study conducted in Nigeria by Iwelunmoret al. (2014) indicates that more than 30% of the women rely on their husbands to make health seeking decisions. This cultural tendency impedes the access to prenatal health services. Clinicians and nurses are in a position to diagnose HIV positive woman and advise them on the strategies to use to avoid infecting the newborns. This may also extend to the postnatal care whereby the failure to seek health information results in infection through breast feeding.
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The trend is fairly different in the developing countries whereby culture embraces a health-seeking behavior. This is marked by the difference between the number of hospital deliveries between these countries and in the developing countries (Iwelunmor et al., 2014). It is noteworthy that although this difference can be attributed to the availability of services, there is an element of culture that affects access to both pre and post-natal services.
There are also several spiritual factors that are pertinent to the transmission of mother to child. Different sects do not uphold the contemporary medicine, and they try as much as possible to minimize their contact with health practitioners. They believe that they can get well without exploiting the available health services (Adekunle, 2016).While some of the infections may be suppressed with time, the same cannot happen for HIV. In case of an infection, the religious practice becomes a hindrance to early diagnosis particularly for the expectant women, and this makes it challenging to protect mother to child transmission.
Also, some religious formations are against the use of protection including the use of condoms. It is noteworthy that there are discordant couples who may require the protection of one partner from being infected. Women without the virus are thus exposed to infection due to unprotected sex with infected persons (Zou et al., 2009). It is noteworthy that such practices intensify the vulnerability of the newborns particularly when poor health-seeking behavior accompanies it.
Some religions also associate HIV with God’s punishment. Those ailing from the condition are believed to be immoral divergent from the religious teachings. For this reason, they choose to remain silent to conceal their HIV status. It is noteworthy that prenatal care encourages HIV testing and this realization leads to the women opting to skip the session lest their condition become known to many people (Zou et al., 2009). Although they may trust the hospital to keep their conditions confidential and receive the necessary care, they may nurse their children by defying the instructions given at the hospital. For instance, they may breastfeed the infant to avoid raising suspicion from the members of the community.
References
Adekunle, Y. (2016). Evolving usage and access to ICTs in the Nigerian health care sector: challenges and prospects (Doctoral dissertation, University of Westminster).
Iwelunmor, J., Ezeanolue, E. E., Airhihenbuwa, C. O., Obiefune, M. C., Ezeanolue, C. O., & Ogedegbe, G. G. (2014). Socio-cultural factors influencing the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Nigeria: a synthesis of the literature. BMC Public Health , 14 (1), 771.
Zou, J., Yamanaka, Y., John, M., Watt, M., Ostermann, J., & Thielman, N. (2009). Religion and HIV in Tanzania: influence of religious beliefs on HIV stigma, disclosure, and treatment attitudes. BMC public health , 9 (1), 75.
