Exploring Barriers to Access Prenatal Care Among Indigenous Mexican and Guatemalan Women in Washington State

Abstract

Migrant and seasonal agricultural workers including indigenous women who are not of Hispanic descent face many barriers to access prenatal care. We conducted a survey in Spanish and three indigenous languages—Mixteco, Triqui, and Awakateko—to explore knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding prenatal care among 82 female agricultural workers residing in the state of Washington. Our findings highlight the importance of collecting disaggregated data from different indigenous communities and of providing indigenous language support. Our study provides new information for developing messages to promote prenatal care that take into account the knowledge and beliefs that are prevalent in these communities.

Keywords:

• Indigenous immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala
• barriers to accessing health care
• beliefs regarding prenatal care
• survey

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a Small Grant from The Latino Center for Health, University of Washington. AEM was also supported by NIH/NCI Grant U54 CA143931.