ABSTRACT
Food taboos are commonly found among around all societies of the world. In every society, culture and beliefs influence the women eating patterns during pregnancy. In Indian society, most food practices and beliefs have emerged from deeply rooted traditions and customs of particular geographical area or culture. Objectives: The objectives of the present study were- 1. To study the prevalence of food taboos and social beliefs among pregnant women. 2. To find out the avoided certain food and reason behind it during the pregnancy. 3. To study the association between the demographic characteristic of pregnant women and food taboos. Methods & Materials: Participants of the study were pregnant 105 women aged 18 to 35 years of Harahua Primary Health Centre, in Varanasi District. The cross-sectional study design was used to obtain the objective of the study. The finding of the study revealed that most of the pregnant women (70.47%) use to avoid some foods during pregnancy. Papaya was the most common food, which was avoided by the pregnant women, and reasons for not consuming the papaya, is it cause were abortion and it is a hot food. The findings of the present study also revealed no association between food taboos and pregnant women demographic characteristics such as age, category, type of family, educational status, socio-economic status, number of pregnancy etc. It means in every type of family, educated women, as well as of high socio-economic backgrounds women use to belief on food taboos.
ABSTRACT
The affective domain is not explicitly targeted during medical studies and poor skills in this domain may lead to conflict when dealing with patients. Reflective narratives are said to promote humanitarianism and professional development. We aimed to examine reflective narratives written by medical students in our institution for content relating to ethical and professional Attitude and Behaviour, Communication, respect for Diversity and Disability, and Empathy (the ABCDE paradigm). We were also interested in understanding how far the students enjoyed learning through the writing of narratives and in determining their perceived learning from the exercise. Volunteer medical students were introduced to Gibbs’ reflective cycle during a half-day workshop. After giving written informed consent, they submitted anonymous reflective narratives (online), based on an interaction that they witnessed between a patient and a doctor/student. The authors performed directed content analysis of the submissions, using predetermined codes pertaining to ABCDE. At the end of the study, the participants sent in their feedback through a questionnaire on the process and the learning acquired, if any. Twenty-six students volunteered and 15 narratives were submitted. The issues that had been identified were discussed with the students. Feedback was submitted by 12 students, who strongly felt that the writing of narratives enhanced learning about ethics, professionalism, communication, diversity and empathy. We conclude that reflective student narratives are a useful and enjoyable way of teaching students about issues in the affective domain that are not conventionally taught