Professor Shane Doyle & Professor Jane Plastow (Leeds): 'Maternal Health in Kenya: Interdisciplinary perspectives'

Maternal health was key to the development of medical systems across East Africa in the mid twentieth century. But in recent decades it has been neglected, or used as a vehicle to achieve other health-related goals. Maternal mortality ratios, which fell rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, have since stagnated at a high level. Relations between clinical staff and patients are frequently conflictual. In an attempt to understand the tensions within the field of maternal health, an interdisciplinary group of researchers employed arts and humanities methodologies in collaboration with local institutions in western Kenya. This joint presentation will discuss our findings, and our experiences of interdisciplinarity, focusing particularly on the interplay of historical, anthropological, linguistic, theatre, and film-based approaches.