Public Health Nursing
Volume 19, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 209-214

Mobilizing the community to address the prenatal health needs of immigrant punjabi women (Article)

Bhagat R.* , Johnson J. , Grewal S. , Pandher P. , Quong E. , Triolet K.
  • a Vancouver/Richmond Health Board, Vancouver, BC, Canada, North Community Health Office, 1651 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC V5L 3Y3, Canada
  • b School of Nursing, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
  • c Vancouver/Richmond Health Board, Vancouver, BC, Canada
  • d South Vancouver Neighbourhood House, Vancouver, BC, Canada
  • e South Vancouver Family Place, Vancouver, BC, Canada
  • f Vancouver/Richmond Health Board, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Abstract

In Canada, although prenatal education is available to all women, there are groups who do not access these services. One such group is Immigrant Punjabi women residing in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. It was apparent that structured prenatal education, even when translation was available, would not meet the needs of this group. Efforts were required to help bring this issue into the community so that the community would endorse women's participation in prenatal preparation. The purpose of the project described in this article was to explore how community mobilization strategies could be used to improve the health of pregnant women in the Punjabi community. A collaborative approach was used with representatives from a variety of service agencies and the community. The mobilization strategy involved creating a platform to communicate with the community about prenatal health and health care, creating "buy-in" from the physicians serving the women of the community, and providing prenatal sessions that built on the existing knowledge of the women. We describe the mobilization process and discuss the insights gained.

Author Keywords

Prenatal care Women Health Immigrant population Community mobilization

Index Keywords

Canada health service female Emigration and Immigration pregnancy prenatal care India ethnology Maternal Health Services Community Health Services Article organization and management British Columbia Health Services Needs and Demand community care human Humans migration
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-0036584744&doi=10.1046%2fj.0737-1209.2002.19309.x&partnerID=40&md5=763579be444b78f28fe57a386263ce2f
DOI: 10.1046/j.0737-1209.2002.19309.x
ISSN: 07371209
Cited by: 15
Original Language: English