POST
MARITAL POST-MARITAL
RETURN TO NATAL HOME TO HAVE THE FIRST BIRTH: DOES THIS SOCIOCULTURAL TRADITION
DISEMPOWER WOMEN? EVIDENCE FROM GWERU, ZIMBABWE
Abstract: Using
a clinic-based questionnaire survey among first union, post-partum women and
focus group discussions, the study analyses aspects of the sociocultural
tradition of post-marital return to natal home to have the first birth that
disempower women. Up to 64.8% of first time mothers surveyed had returned to
natal homes to have first marital births. Mean duration of pregnancy at return
to natal homes was 6.5 months. In over 60% of cases, the total period of stay at
natal homes was five to six months. Return to natal homes is perceived as
apprenticing women into motherhood. None of the women surveyed had achieved the
optimum 12-13 prenatal care visits. The paper posits that in some social
contexts, the tradition undermines survivorship status of mothers and their
babies. Protracted spousal separation reduces partner(s)’ involvement in
childcare, increases vulnerability of women to STIs, HIV/AIDS infection,
abandonment and union dissolution.