Written By
Stephanie Schierhuber
College/Division
College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences
Publish Date
13 July 2020
Related Study Areas
Gender equality the key to maternal health
World Population Day on 11 July focuses attention on the importance and urgency of population issues, such as population growth, ageing, migration and urbanisation. The theme of this year’s World Population Day recognises that reproductive health and gender equality are essential in achieving sustainable development and a brighter future.
JCU PhD candidate Relmah Harrington is looking to the role the wider community can play in creating a healthier and safer future for maternal and neonatal health outcomes in the Solomon Islands.
As an experienced nurse, midwife, and nurse educator and trainer, Relmah has witnessed first-hand the reproductive healthcare challenges faced by the communities and healthcare workers in her home nation, the Solomon Islands.
Maternal and neonatal mortality, limited access to health services, and high teen pregnancy rates are some of the issues that the she has seen throughout her career. On way of improving outcomes in these areas is through the provision of reproductive health advice and family planning resources.
The availability of such services, however, does not necessarily relate to the number of people using the service. “I didn’t see women come forward very much to access family services,” Relmah says. “We used to give health talks and education talks to them but not many people came forward to take family planning options. I was wondering why women, or men, weren’t coming forward and if there was something I need to know from their perspectives.”
A community perspective makes all the difference
In order to understand the gap between the high-level of family planning knowledge and the uptake rate of family planning services, Relmah decided to combine her experience as a Solomon Islands woman and her time as a nurse and midwife to examine what was happening at the service provision level. “I needed to go back to the other part of me,” she says, “the community member, to see what might work for us in the community and how we can get everyone to be involved so that women can come forward.”
Relmah’s preliminary results suggest that connecting the provision of family planning with community context is key. “We only talk to women when we talk about family planning and not the men,” she says. “In the cultural context, men are the decision makers in the family, and they will have to agree before a woman will accept these resources — we didn’t actually reach the husband.”
Considering the cultural contexts of men and woman is also important when it comes to who is delivering the service. “Men would prefer to deal with a male service provider, but in my remote hospital there was no man in the family planning clinic; it was only women. It is like men and boys cannot fit into the service, so we need to make space for them, and involve men in the delivery of family planning.”
The location of the clinic
“What happened was our family planning clinic in that hospital was a little room attached to the delivery suite,” Relmah says. “The nearby communities in the mountains practice ancestral worship and have a belief that their women could not call near the birthing place. Unless they are birthing, it is taboo, so if the building is connected then they can’t come.
"There is a similar taboo for the men. They believe that they can’t come near the birthing suite, which means they can’t access the family planning clinic. They said if the clinic is a separate building not connected to the birthing suite then they can come there to access family planning resources and advice.”
For Relmah, understanding that a one size fits all approach would not work is key. Health services must meet the community where they are and in their own context. As Relmah points out, cultural values and religious beliefs can play an important role in making family planning more accessible, as opposed to being viewed as an impediment to service delivery and care. “Rather than just blaming culture and religion, if we can also look at facilities and how we actually make the service available to each community, it would make a difference to the uptake and provision of family health services,” she says.
“The main thing is where the service is located, who is providing the service, and how it is provided.”
JCU PhD candidate Relmah Harrington
While women and their babies are at the forefront of pregnancy and childbirth risk, encouraging the uptake of family planning to improve reproductive health outcomes requires a community approach. “I hope I can change the way that we provide services and change it in a way that suits the context of people who access that particular health centre, so people are able to come forward and utilise the service.”
Featured researcher
Relmah Harrington
PhD Candidate
Relmah Harrington is a midwife and nurse educator from the Solomon Islands. She has been practising as a nurse-midwife for more than 20 years, teaching midwifery for 15 years and has great passion for midwifery practice. Relmah attained a Certificate in Nursing, Atoifi College of Nursing, Solomon Islands in 1995 and a Bachelor in Midwifery at Massey University, New Zealand in 2001. She also completed postgraduate studies including an International Postgraduate Paediatric Certificate from University of Sydney, Certificate in Education from Solomon Islands College of Higher Education and Postgraduate Certificate in Public Health from Fiji National University.
During 2005-2006, Relmah taught in the Advanced Diploma Midwifery in Honiara, when the Ministry of Health piloted the Midwifery program. From 2015 to 2016, Relmah coordinated and taught the Bachelor of Midwifery at Solomon Islands National University. Relmah is currently studying a Doctor of Philosophy (Health) at JCU (2020-2022). Her research focus is to improve family planning in Solomon Islands.