Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Reproductive health is central to the survival of society. Through reproduction, Human’s propagate society. Improved reproductive health amounts to improved maternal and infant health. According to the CDC, despite improvements in recent years, too many women are still dying in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications; especially in developing countries such as Kenya. To improve reproductive health concerns, to provide effective maternity care, and to save lives, the CDC recommends that policy makers should seek solid evidence of the scope and locations of inhibitors of reproductive health. In a developing country such as Kenya, women’s reproductive health confronts culturally legitimate gender-based challenges such as child marriage and female genital cutting (FGC). These practices add to reproductive health concerns including hemorrhage, obstructed labor, fistula, ruptured uterus, toxemia, pre-eclampsia, postpartum sepsis, infectious diseases, cervical tears, nerve damage, and incontinence. Reproductive health is a human rights that should be prioritized in communities. The need to acknowledge the link between gender-based cultural practices and women’s reproductive health is a significant step in improving maternal and infant health. This project investigates how reproductive health concerns are socially determined, how culturally legitimate practices of child marriage and female genital cutting undermine reproductive health outcomes, the importance of an integrative medical approach to reproductive health for biomedical professionals, and the efforts to integrate social determinants of reproductive health care in Kilifi and Kenya in general.