Cultural considerations and beliefs surrounding preterm birth in Kenya and South Africa.

Background: Preterm birth (PTB) is a global health epidemic, sub-Saharan Africa is severely impacted due to its limited healthcare resources. Pregnancy knowledge, cultural beliefs and practices play a role in the identification of risk and management of PTB. This study explored knowledge, understandings, cultural beliefs and attitudes to pregnancy and PTB, as well as cultural considerations for the introduction of an intravaginal device which could be used to identify PTB risk.

Improving Reproductive Health Communication Between Providers and Women Affected by Homelessness and Substance Use in San Francisco: Results from a Community-Informed Workshop.

Objectives: Many cisgender women affected by homelessness and substance use desire pregnancy and parenthood. Provider discomfort with patient-centered counseling about reproductive choices and supporting reproductive decisions of these women poses barriers to reproductive healthcare access.

Methods: We used participatory research methods to develop a half-day workshop for San Francisco-based medical and social service providers to improve reproductive counseling of women experiencing homelessness and/or who use substances.

Patient and provider perspectives on barriers and facilitators to reproductive healthcare access for women experiencing homelessness with substance use disorders in San Francisco.

Background: Women experiencing homelessness with substance use disorders face unique and intersecting barriers to realizing their reproductive goals.

Objective: This study explored the reproductive aspirations of this population, as well as the barriers to accessing reproductive services from the perspectives of affected individuals, and the healthcare providers who serve them.

Design: This mixed-methods study included surveys and interviews with women experiencing homelessness with substance use disorders and healthcare providers.

Transforming masculine norms to improve men's contraceptive acceptance: results from a pilot intervention with men in western Kenya.

Men's adherence to constraining male gender norms can lead them to resist contraceptive use. Very few interventions have attempted to transform masculine norms to encourage greater contraceptive acceptance and gender equality. We designed and evaluated a small-scale community-based intervention targeting the masculine norms tied to contraceptive resistance among partnered men ( = 150) in two western Kenya communities (intervention vs.

Toward an intravaginal device to detect risk of preterm labor: a user-centered design approach in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: Prematurity and its complications are the leading cause of death and disability in children under five in Africa and North America, affecting as many as one in ten pregnancies. Screening tests to predict preterm birth (PTB) are insensitive, costly, and often unavailable in low resource settings. In parallel with early-stage U.