Indigenous women working towards improved maternal health: Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia

This Health Unlimited paper summarises a report which identifies the barriers that indigenous women face in accessing publicly provided maternal health services in Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia. The paper reveals the persistent and deep problems in accessing health care. These include cost of care; distance from health centres and transportation; discrimination; and language. Factors that affect individuals and families decision to access health services include: confidence in the health service; traditional beliefs; the role of traditional birth attendants; transportation; and the referral system.

The paper concludes that some local communities have adapted their local belief systems so that both indigenous and ‘modern’ health care approaches are mutually valued; their beliefs are essentially flexible and can accommodate both. This stands in contrast to the attitudes of health staff, who see ‘modern’ health care as the only option. Most were inflexible about the need to incorporate elements of indigenous culture into their health provision and expressed negative views and opinions of indigenous peoples and their cultural beliefs.