Food taboos and nutrition-related pregnancy concerns among Ethiopian women

To discuss Ethiopian food taboos during pregnancy and their relation to maternal nutritional status and pregnancy outcomes.

Recent waves of migration have seen large groups of Ethiopian refugees moving to countries around the globe. This is of concern as Ethiopian women are at risk of a number of medical and pregnancy complications. Health is further compromised by poor diet and adherence to cultural food beliefs and taboos. In refugee women, many of these factors correspond with significantly higher rates of pregnancy complications and poor birth outcomes.

This is a discussion paper informed by a literature review.

A search of the Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science and Academic Search Premier databases for the keywords Ethiopian, pregnancy, food and taboos was conducted in the research literature published from 1998-2015. This time is contingent with Ethiopian migration trends.

Ethiopian migrant women are at risk of inadequate nutrition during pregnancy. Risks include cultural factors associated with food taboos as well as issues associated with low socioeconomic status. Consequently, Ethiopian women are more likely to have nutritional deficiencies such as anaemia which have been associated with a range of pregnancy complications.

There are many serious consequences of poor diet during pregnancy; however, most of these can be avoided by greater awareness about the role of nutrition during pregnancy and by adopting a balanced diet.

There is an urgent unmet need for nutrition education among Ethiopian women. Research indicates that Ethiopian women are receptive to nutritional advice during pregnancy and also that pregnant women are generally motivated to act in the baby's interest. These factors suggest that this high-risk group would be amenable to culturally appropriate nutrition education, which would provide much-needed meaningful support in pregnancy.