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- Convenor:
-
ASSUMPTA CHIEMEKA OSUNKWO
(NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY NIGERIA)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Disciplinary streams:
- Health
Short Abstract
This panel explores the integration of traditional postpartum knowledge with contemporary healthcare to further stabilise maternal and newborn wellbeing.
Long Abstract
We invite papers brainstorming on how traditional postpartum care can be connected with contemporary healthcare to enhance maternal and newborn wellbeing across African communities. Postpartum care extends beyond clinical services to include family support, nutrition, emotional care, newborn practices and intergenerational knowledge. The World Health Organization (2022) recognises that positive postnatal care should respect women’s cultural contexts and involve families and caregivers. Gresh et al. (2021), in an African continental review, identify gaps in postpartum-care provision and call for approaches responsive to African contexts. In Nigeria, Isidienu and Chiejina (2022) show that cultural beliefs and practices continue to shape postpartum experiences and care. In Southeast Nigeria, Nwokedi, Kanu and Green (2025) demonstrate that Ọmụgwọ, an Igbo traditional postpartum practice, supports maternal recovery, infant care, intergenerational knowledge and family relationships.
Rather than positioning traditional care against biomedical practice, this panel views the hearth and hospital as complementary spaces of knowledge and care. It explores how indigenous practices throw weight on evidence-informed healthcare without erasing their cultural meaning and what can these encounters reveal about African ways of knowing and caring for mothers and newborns.
This panel invites contributions tracing:
Traditional postpartum knowledge across African communities.
Traditional postpartum care in Southeast Nigeria.
Indigenous–biomedical knowledge dialogue and inculturation.
New approaches to culturally responsive maternal and newborn care.
We welcome papers interrogating how culturally embedded postpartum knowledge can contribute to contemporary healthcare and how such dialogue can generate new knowledge for improving maternal and newborn wellbeing.