Suchergebnisse

Women's agency and reproductive control directly bear their current pregnancy and future childbearing experiences. This study deals with knowledge construction in childbirth planning. The study is based on a phenomenological approach relying on in-depth interviews of sixty married women of childbearing age who have recently been through the birthing process. Cultural discourses provide an understanding of socio-familial context reinforcing traditional home birthing. Findings indicate that the desire for natural childbirth experience, apprehensions regarding obstetric interventions by medical doctors, emotional support, comfort and assistance provided by female relatives, traditional birth attendants, and their husbands' preference add to their decision for home birthing. In addition, another determinant was the role of authoritative knowledge and shared experiences of older women that may deprive many young women of the chance to access maternal care in hospitals. The study suggests that rural women effectively utilize reproductive health care services in Pakistan.

Purpose of the study: This study aims to highlight how death serves as a central feature of social ties among the natives of Northern Punjab. Death is a great leveller and one of the most curious aspects of human cognition. Bereavement follows the terminal rites de passage; the transition of the deceased from this world to the other world. Methodology: By using an inductive approach, the ethnographic account of the most significant rite of passage; death was gathered. The primary data is based on case-based narratives and empirical findings gathered during in-depth interviews and participant observation at the locale. A total of thirteen cases of death migrants are discussed in this paper. Main Findings: The findings reveal the social pressures the family of the deceased encountered in the pre and post-death phase both in the country of origin and in the country of destination, how horrors of COVID-19 infection kept the entire bereaved families at a halt to decide their funerary rituals, pandemic's effect on the body's postmortem clearance and death certificate, arrangement for the morgue and grave while the decision of burial was in process, familial politics engaged in decision making, the journey back to the native soil, the burial, mourning, condolence and bereavement rituals of Potohar. Applications of this study: This paper solely focuses on the death rituals of migrants from the Northern Punjab region in COVID-19. The study provides an understanding of the religio-cultural rituals and their transformation in the global pandemic. Novelty/Originality of this study: The researcher has prepared an account of the death rituals based on the close observations and in-depth insights during the mortuary rites of migrants who expired during the pandemic COVID-19 during doctoral research. No such research has been carried out in Potohar (Northern Punjab) in this context.

The novel COVID-19 pandemic is yet to unfold its impact and long-run consequences. Both developed and developing nations are trying their level best to cope and address the current situation in their respective affected regions with the help of the international guidelines and through their own experiences. The policies play an effective and efficient role in understanding different dimensions of the practices including social distancing, washing hands, wearing masks and most above all the lockdown. Such series of actions demand strong policy and learning both from global scenarios and national or provincial experiences. This study suggests how the policy gap may be identified to especially link the primary health care for the adequate response to this challenge. The study covered the editions of the latest news journals, newspapers, websites published between the months of March 2020 to April 2020 because the Pandemic paced up in these months.