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Relations between Government HealthWorkers and Traditional Midwives in Guatemala

Abstract:

Nearly half of Guatemala’s 10.8 million inhabitants have limited access to government health services. A history of social inequity, geographic isolation, and institutional inefficiency, plus decades of political conflict, have combined to produce a low level of preventive and curative services, especially to rural indigenous populations. Despite the network of hospitals, health posts, and centers, official public health services have too few personnel and experience chronic shortages of equipment, medicine, and supplies. Moreover, health services follow a Western, highly medicalized model of facility-based delivery without sufficient regard for the local cultural context and the needs of the impoverished indigenous populations, especially women. Many Guatemalans utilize ‘‘alternative’’health resources and treatments, including home remedies, traditional healers, bonesetters, herbalists, and midwives as well as …