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Immigrant Muslim Women

Decent Essays

Language issues also impact immigrant women’s abilities to develop therapeutic relationships with health care providers and express themselves effectively in healthcare settings. In an ethnographic study on communication challenges for immigrant women in rural Alberta, Higginbottom et al found that communication challenges extend beyond verbal communication and impact immigrant women’s abilities to build trusting relationships with their healthcare providers and results in miscommunications due to unshared cultural meanings of language. (HigginbottomAlberta:300-301) Reitmanova reported that, in addition to preventing access to information for immigrant Muslim women in their study, limited English fluency also made it difficult for immigrant …show more content…

Stewart et al. studied postpartum women in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and found that immigrant women had lower social supports than Canadian-born women and a greater risk for postpartum depression, which they postulated was due to their lack of social support, language challenges, and limited experience with life and healthcare in the Canadian context. (Stewart:123) In another study involving 1,250 women recruited from 5 hospitals in Canada, Sword found that immigrant women had less social support than Canadian-born women, which may relate to the absence of adult female relatives for many of these women. (10:721) The lack of social support for immigrant women can lead to social isolation and adverse health effects. (10:721) This is particularly relevant to consider since it is the norm in may non-Western cultures to obtain assistance from family members for up to 40 days postpartum and to be taken care of by female family members. (10:722, 725) Gagnon at al also found that women were unable to access maternal health care given that they relied on their partners for language translation and transportation and it was challenging to attend appointments with their other children. (Gagnon:563-4) With the absence of extended family, friends and cultural communities for immigrant women in Canada, we can see how the effects of these barriers could be isolating …show more content…

(8:225) A study by Landy, Sword and Ciliska analyzing data from a cross-sectional mother-infant survey in Ontario found that the majority of women born abroad in their study were socio-economically disadvantaged, which could relate to underemployment, unemployment or unpaid maternity leave. (Landy:6-7) In a meta-ethnography of immigrant women’s experiences with maternity services in Canada, Higginbottom et al synthesized the effects of socioeconomic factors into the following specific barriers: issues with transportation, precarious employment and unstable housing. (Higginbottom2014:554) Although immigrant women were more likely to report a need for financial aid during the first four weeks following hospital discharge, Sword found that they were three times less likely to be able to access required financial assistance compared to Canadian-born women.

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