Preserving the pot and water: A traditional concept of reproductive health in a Yoruba community, Nigeria

Social Science and Medicine

Volumn 43, Issue 11, 1996, Pages 1561-1567

  Adetunji, Jacob A ^a  

^a MACRO INTERNATIONAL INC   (United States)

Author keywords

Health services use; Nigeria; Prenatal care; Reproductive health; Yoruba

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CHILD DEATH; CHILDBIRTH; CULTURAL FACTOR; FEMALE; HEALTH CARE DELIVERY; HUMAN; INTERVIEW; MATERNAL MORTALITY; NIGERIA; PREGNANCY; PRENATAL CARE; PREVENTION; SPONTANEOUS ABORTION;

CULTURAL BELIEFS; HEALTH SERVICE UTILISATION; PRENATAL CARE; REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH; YORUBA PEOPLE;

NIGERIA;

EID: 0030301142     PISSN: 02779536     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0277-9536(96)00052-4     Document Type: Article

References (14)

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7. 7. There was a census in Nigeria in November 1991, but as at the time of writing, the local census figures are not yet available. So, the estimated population for the community is projected from the 1963 census figure of 67,090 assuming an annual growth rate of 2.5%. At this growth rate, the population of the town would be 149,300 in 1995. These, of course, are just estimates.
8. 8. Adetunji J. A. Church-based obstetrics in a Yoruba community, Nigeria. Soc. Sci. Med. 35, 1171, 1992.
9. 9. Names used in this paper are pseudonyms and not the real names of the respondents.
10. 10. Maclean C. M. U. Traditional healers and their female clients: an aspect of Nigerian sickness behavior. J. Hlth Soc. Behav. 10, 172, 1969.
11. 11. Maclean U. Magical Medicine: A Nigerian Case-study. Allen Lane the Penguin, London, 1971.
12. 12. Odebiyi A. I. Food taboos in maternal and child health: the views of traditional healers in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Soc. Sci. Med. 28, 985, 1989.
13. 13. A question might be raised here: if the womb is thought to be a pot or gourd, why is ideyun (literally, "pregnancy binding") the term for pregnancy care rather than plugging or use of stoppers? First, it must be realized that only leaking pots and gourds need stoppers; as a leaking pot does not retain water, so a leaking womb retains no pregnancies. Once a woman was pregnant and the pregnancy stayed until the fifth month, it was apparently assumed that her womb (the pot) had no inherent leakage. Efforts were then made to ensure that none was metaphysically introduced. To this end, protective pads were symbolically bound around the pot. Hence the term ideyun.
14. 14. FOS (Federal Office of Statistics) and IRD/Macro International. Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 1990. IRD/Macro, Columbia, MD, 1992.