Authors: ANOUA Adou Serge Judicaël.
Maternal and child health remains a current challenge in Côte d'Ivoire because of high maternal and child mortality rates in that country. This failure raises the limits of the biomedical sciences in reproductive health. In this field of health, there is undeniably a life quality problem. This concern is shared by socio-anthropology. As a matter of fact, how can we explain and understand the evolution of reproductive health problems in mothers and children?
All the work carried out revolves around the issue of "obstetric culture and reproductive health". In other words, how can we explain and understand obstetric culture as a major determinant in the development of reproductive health in Côte d'Ivoire? In this context, reflections oriented through socio-anthropological research are constantly supported by the same precise thesis: "Taking into account socio-cultural determinants specific to the communities in question, impeding the health of the mother-child couple, could contribute to opening the communities studied to a safer motherhood." Starting from this fundamental aim, strategies for reducing dramas by taking into account the cultural markers of communities can be identified as well as actions for behavioral change can be planned. This orientation seems to us a hypothesis of possible solution to circumvent the epidemiological monopoly underlying the approach in public health.