Contraceptive attitudes and practices in the roma communities

AuthorRaluca Zanca
PositionDept. Of Communication And Social Work, Transilvania University Of Brasov
Pages155-160

Page 155

1. Introduction: general considerations about contraception

I considered that a point of interest for my research was emphasizing the subjects' degree of awareness vis-à-vis family planning, contraception and birth control methods. This topic is important because the first step necessary for adopting a positive behaviour towards birth control methods is to know how and what to use.

From my research, it resulted that Roma women know the significance of the family planning concept, correlating it either with the idea of not having children or with the idea of planning a pregnancy, when it is wanted.

The man's authority in the Roma family is reconfirmed in this case, even tough, in its basic sense, family planning is an endeavour addressed to the couple. Roma women recognize man's decisional authority regarding this aspect.

At a declarative level, especially as a result of their need of social desirability within the group discussion, but also literally, the Roma women mention the existence of a dialogue with their husbands or consensual partners regarding contraception. Most of the time though, these discussions are not about choosing a birth control method, but mostly about keeping the pregnancy that has already appeared or about making an abortion.

For reasons that I have already presented above, the group interviews were not attended by Roma men. Keeping that in mind, however, from previous discussions and direct observation within the community, and also from discussions with the family planning doctor and the sanitary mediator, it resulted clearly that they do not agree to the idea of family planning. A woman's state of pregnancy, her continuous preoccupation with raising and caring about her children represents anPage 156expression of the control exercised by her husband, a guarantee of loyalty in the couple (a value listed among the most important in the hierarchy of masculine values by Roma men), husbands or consensual partners do not agree to the idea that their wives should attend these services or use contraception.

In certain situations, however, it is preferable for Roma women to access the family planning services without the consent of their partner, instead of giving birth to an unwanted child. The attempts to inform and educate in order to change the reproductive behaviour are usually addressed to the couple. In the particular case of the Roma population, taking into consideration the man's dominance at decisional level and the woman's lack of autonomy, the campaigns to inform and educate were meant mostly for women, because they are the main contraception users and furthermore, the idea of avoiding an unwanted pregnancy came first. An unwanted pregnancy could generate abortion, or other associated phenomena: child abuse, child abandonment, domestic violence etc. Thus, women were encouraged to use contraception even if their partner did not agree at first.

The Roma women that were included in the interview groups proved to have precarious knowledge regarding modern birth control methods. Even though they managed to catalogue modern birth control methods, their knowledge is superficial. The subjects possess knowledge regarding empirical methods that are medically unaccepted, especially in the form of vaginal washings.

A method often used, even though it is not among the conventional methods is the so called withdrawal method (fereala in Romanian) or coitus interruptus. It is a frequently used method especially in the Transylvanian region, with quite a low efficiency, but it is among the most frequently used methods in the Roma communities.

There is also vague and unsuitable knowledge about the natural methods, like the calendar method or the breast-feeding method.

An often encountered practice in the case of disadvantaged populations, implicitly in the studied group, is the use of abortion as a method to avoid an unwanted pregnancy. It results that, in fact, abortion is considered to be an extremely facile method of regulating fertility, with a "saving" effect when a woman becomes pregnant. The interviewed women list it as a birth control...

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