Impact of Child Birth Related Social Norms and Customs on Rural Adolescent Mothers’ Health

Adolescent pregnancies and motherhood reveal risks to the health of both the mother and child. Childbirth-related social norms and customs reduce such kinds of risk in many rural areas. The primary aim of this study is to explore the health complications regarding the social norms and customs and their outcomes among adolescent mothers during childbirth and the postpartum period in rural areas. This study is a qualitative scrutiny in the field of sociology with descriptive analysis, where the survey and case study were also used for collecting the actual data from the respondents. The study is based on a survey of 150 adolescents who became mothers. A set of straightforward and fundamental interview questions was included in the agenda. Informal meetings, non-participant observation, spot observation, and the gathering of personal and family information through informal meetings were all employed to explore and gain a critical awareness of all aspects of adolescent health and its impacts in the research region. Both closed-ended and open-ended questions were on the schedule. In order to investigate the actual results of this study, focus group discussions (FGD) and in-depth interviews were also used as data collection techniques. A fascinating finding is that a larger proportion suffer postpartum health problems due to following some specific birth-related social norms and customs such as gender-based inequality, restriction on movement, home-based delivery practices, food taboos, distortion of religious codes, patriarchal dominance, maternal altruism, etc. Most of the adolescents are subjected to those social norms and customs by members of their in-laws’ families. Appropriate health consciousness, proper education, familial cooperation, etc. can be helpful in addressing this problem.