Early Postnatal Care Practices for Mothers and Their Babies in Bangladesh: An Integrative Literature Review

This integrative review aimed to describe the experiences of early postnatal care practices for mothers and their babies in rural Bangladesh. This study was conducted using an integrative review method outlined by Coughlan, Cronin and Ryan. An integrative search in ProQuest, PubMed, CINAHL, Sociological Abstract, and Google Scholar was conducted. The key terms include safe motherhood, postnatal care, MDGs, newborn care, maternal mortality, TBAs, cultural practice in childbirth and Bangladesh. After screening of the full-text and guided by the relevance of the studies against the inclusion criteria, a total of 22 studies were selected for final review. The results reveal that women’s behaviours and attitudes during the postnatal period are shaped by individual beliefs and views as well as by socio-cultural practices. It shows how indigenous knowledge and practices affected women’s postnatal care practices for generations. From the results, it is clear that rural women in Bangladesh followed many cultural practices during childbirth and postnatal period. In rural Bangladesh, postnatal care behaviour is mostly imposed by traditional cultural practices. Therefore, it is important to understand women’s cultural practices around childbirth, and in particular to understand their experiences during the postnatal period.