Conceptualizing Cultural Sensitivity in the Struggle to Reduce Global Maternal Mortality Rates

Estimably 529,000-536,000 women die annually from childbearing-related causes; 99% of these deaths occur in developing nations. Meanwhile, the UN Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality is presently the slowest moving of all Millennium Development Goals. This presentation offers a historical analysis of the social and political factors which have impeded the implementation of programs which effectively reduce maternal mortality. It presents a historical case that debates over the medicalization of childbirth in the West have subtly infused the approach that some Western scholars and aid organizations have taken in efforts to reduce maternal mortality in the developing world. This has resulted in dilatory debates regarding best practice despite the emergence of evidence that enhanced medical expertise and access to emergency obstetric care are more effective in reducing maternal mortality rates than less medicalized approaches. This presentation suggests a reframing of cultural sensitivity in the study and implementation of development programs to reduce maternal mortality, advocating an increased emphasis on reflexivity among Westerners as to the ways in which domestic debates influence approaches to maternal mortality in the developing world. Further, it proposes that cultural sensitivity should not devolve into cultural relativism. Case studies from Kenya, Afghanistan, and Nepal demonstrate that solidarity among local actors and aid organizations with shared beliefs in women's rights to safe childbirth have improved emergency obstetric facilities and effectively reduced maternal mortality rates. While these programs have shifted normative local practices of childbirth, this presentation suggests that such shifts are justified by reduced mortality rates.