Interpreting Maternal Death: When Underlying Causes Are Non-Medical Despite Medical Indications

Brahima A Diallo*

Received: September 21, 2017;   Published: October 03, 2017

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2017.01.000404

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Abstract

The relationship between the medical caregiver and the patient usually displays an authoritative knowledge [1,2] of the former although the latter contributes to making the health care delivery more efficient [3]. Despite an involvement of the patient, his/her embodied knowledge [4] most often lacks legitimacy considering the health service delivery procedures particularly in the presence of a complication. However, the prominence of the patient’s subjective interpretation may contribute to challenging the practice of the biomedicine regarding the accountability in some context. The following reflection draws on two cases of maternal death that occur in Ouenkoro’s community health centre, a rural area in central Mali. The health facility is the first level of health care delivery in the Malian health systems. The midwife in charge of providing child birth services has been running the maternity for about thirty years. In the two cases highlighted the context of care delivery waschallenged by the parturient subjective interpretations of their conditions. Those accounts not only gained legitimacy over the clinical indications but also in reporting the maternal deaths from the perspective of the midwife.

Introduction| First Case| Second Case| Discussion| Conclusion| References|