article

Pregnancy and childbirth among the Amish

Social science & medicine36 (3)Published In 1993 • Pages: 333-342

By: Campanella, Karla, Korbin, Jill E., Acheson, Louise S..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This study examined Amish patterns of perinatal health care utilization from the perspective of Amish women and local health care providers in Geauga County, Ohio. Participant observation and intrerviews with health care providers and 15 Amish women yielded data on perinatal beliefs and utiliztion patterns for 76 pregnancies. While local health care providers regard the Amish as suboptimally utilizing prenatal care, this study found a consistent pattern of health seeking behavior. In the absence of symptoms perceived to be serious, Amish women initiated prenatal care earlier for fist pregnancies and progressively later with increasing parity. Amish women's perinatal health care utilization must be seen within the context of barriers of transportation, cost, and child care needs. The Amish do not automatically reject medical technology, but select those aspects that are congruent with and that will support and maintain their way of life. Further, despite outward appearances of homogeneity, Amish women display individual variability in responding to pregnancy and childbirth (p. 333).
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Pregnancy
Childbirth
Medical care
Medical personnel
Hospitals and clinics
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Amish
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2009
RegionThe area the document pertains to
North America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
article
Evaluation
Creator TypesThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Medical Personnel
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle; 2007
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1989
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1989
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Geauga County, Ohio, United States
NotesAdditional notes
Karla Campanella, Jill E. Korbin, Louise Acheson
Includes bibliographical references (p. 341-342)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
82643975
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Amish