ISBN:
9781003274162
,
1003274161
,
9781000801811
,
1000801810
,
9781000801781
,
1000801780
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource
Series Statement:
Routledge research in health and healing in Africa and the African diaspora
DDC:
362.1982009667
Keywords:
Maternal health services History 20th century
;
Family planning services History 20th century
;
Women Health and hygiene 20th century
;
History
;
Reproductive health services History 20th century
;
Women's rights History 20th century
Abstract:
"This book investigates the history of women's reproductive health in Ghana, arguing that between the 1920s and 1980s, it was largely driven by discourses of development and population control, rather than a concern for women's health or rights. Between the 1920s and 1980s, the choices that Ghanaian women made regarding their reproductive health were defined by development policy and practice. Spanning the colonial and immediate postcolonial periods, this book demonstrates that whilst the substance of development discourse shifted over time, principles of development continued to be used to impact and legitimise reproductive health policy and practices well after independence. The book explores Ghana's pluralist health system, the introduction of maternal and child welfare, the dominance of the Red Cross in Ghana's maternal and child health landscape, nationalist pronatalism and global population activism. In order to understand how global iterations of development and health policy impacted on ordinary lives in Ghana, the author uses evidence from multiple 'levels', including private papers, national archives, and records of international and transnational organisations. Providing balanced archival perspectives, the book includes extensive oral history interviews carried out with both rural Ghanaian women and traditional birth attendants, as well as with midwives, doctors and family planning fieldworkers. This book will have an important impact on a number of historical fields including Ghanaian history, global health history, global histories of population and family planning and histories of development. It will be of interest to researchers and students in the history of public health, development, Africa, Ghana and gender"--...
Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index
DOI:
10.4324/9781003274162
URL:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003274162
