Who decides to have sex? Exploring the perceptions of Timorese women and men through a reproductive justice lens.

Despite national policies to support sexual rights, Timorese women are constrained when making sexual and reproductive health decisions. Contextual understanding of sexual decision making is vital for effective engagement by sexual and reproductive health service providers with communities. An intersectional reproductive justice approach broadens the sexual rights lens allowing for an examination of multi-system factors impacting on sexual rights and health.

The decision to seek care antenatally and during labour and birth - Who and what influences this in Timor-Leste? A qualitative project exploring the perceptions of Timorese women and men.

Background: While global maternal deaths have decreased significantly, hundreds of thousands of women still die from pregnancy and birth complications. Interventions such as skilled birth attendants, emergency transportation to health facilities and birth preparedness have been successful at reducing such deaths, however barriers to seeking, reaching, and receiving respectful care persist.

Objective: This study aimed to identify what influences people's decisions to seek antenatal care and care during labour and birth in Timor-Leste, a low-middle income newly independent nation in South East Asia with a high maternal death rate.

Body Mapping to Explore Reproductive Ethno-Physiological Beliefs and Knowledge of Contraception in Timor-Leste.

Maternal mortality remains a significant public health challenge for Timor-Leste. Although access to quality family planning measures may greatly reduce such deaths, consideration of indigenous perceptions, and how they influence reproductive health decision-making and behavior, is crucial if health services are to provide initiatives that are accepted and helpful in improving reproductive health outcomes. We aimed to demonstrate that body mapping is an effective method to traverse language and culture to gain emic insights and indigenous worldviews.