Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Somali Cares: Listening To The Voices Of The Other, Joyce P. Miller

Theses and Graduate Projects

Care during pregnancy is an important preventative health intervention for women and their unborn baby in all cultures. Healthcare inequities exist among some ethnic minority groups and contribute to racial disparities in birth outcomes. Pregnant Somali women, newly immigrated to the United States, ffie forced to seek prenatal care within a cultural context that can be very different from their own experiences and expectations. This refugee population is expected to fit into a medical system that is not only unfamiliar to them, but at times unable to meet their needs during pregnancy. As Somali women seek access to western healthcare …