2 research outputs found
Beliefs and traditions related to a child´s first year of life : a study of the Northwest of Portugal
In this paper we propose an approach to investigate, in the North-west of Portugal, the
parents’ behaviour at birth and during the first year of life of their children. We compare
the heritage, specifically the beliefs and traditions, with the changes that resulted from
the recent and deep cultural transformations that have taken place in Portugal in the last
few decades. In parallel, we tried to determine if the parents’ behaviours, based on beliefs
and traditions, can affect the children’s health. We based our investigation on
standardized interviews with 76 mothers of one-year-old children (born between January
and December 2001) who lived in two parishes of Vizela city. This is a territory where
a more traditional way of life prevails than in other territories of the centre and south of
the country, where there is a strong attachment for religious and social values and where
the influence of the ancestral traditions is still alive. The paper concludes that cultural
heritage can have important impact on individual health. Health professionals, who
work in primary care and in hospitals, must be aware of the responsibility they have to
change this scenario.(undefined