Astrid Blystad
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 165606 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Astrid Blystad |
| PRENOMES | Astrid |
| SOBRENOME | Blystad |
| ASSINATURA | BLYSTAD A |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Bergen |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3199-4496 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 37 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 78 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 37 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2004 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Navigating an ambiguous abortion terrain in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Ethiopia liberalized its abortion law in 2004 and issued technical guidelines in 2006 to expand access to legal and safe abortion services. However, the implementation of this progressive policy is shaped by stigma, patriarchal norms, and influential actors. As a result, women seeking abortion are required either to negotiate these power dynamics or to go through unsafe procedures. Despite this policy overhaul, there is a paucity of data on how w…
Student experiences and perspectives on decolonising global health education
BACKGROUND: Decolonisation has become a global health priority, addressing inequities rooted in colonial histories that continue to shape power dynamics and knowledge systems. Nordic global health programmes bring together students and faculty from diverse backgrounds in a region defined by inclusive ideals but shaped by underexamined colonial legacies. This context offers a valuable setting to examine how decolonial perspectives are integrated o…
Changes in health after a work-related intervention among highly educated migrants in Norway
Our pilot study suggested positive health changes from a work-related intervention in terms of improved general mental health and well-being. Quantitative and qualitative data were complementary. For confirmation of effects, this pilot study should be upscaled with a randomized trial design
We need to confirm at least from two or three”
Healthcare workers' practices in this rural area were found to challenge the basic provisions laid out in Ethiopia's abortion legislation. Their negative discretion of the legislation contributes to the substantial barriers Ethiopian abortion-seeking women face in gaining access to legal abortion services, despite the presence of a progressive legal framework and guidelines
From political priority to service delivery
Improving access to abortion services has been coined a high priority by the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health. Nevertheless, many women are still struggling to access abortion services. The dedicated commitment to expanding abortion services by central authorities and the difficulties in further improving access to the services make for an interesting case to explore the real-life complexities of health priority setting. This article thus exp…
Between ‘block course relationships ’ and abstinence
Inspired by African and other feminist scholarship on gender, sexuality and agency, this article studies narrations of norms and practices in sexual relationships between university students. A main aim of the article is to move beyond the problem focus in earlier scholarship on women, sexuality and reproduction, and to identify potential spaces of freedom and expansion of female agency. The article is based on qualitative research conducted with…
I Do Not Want Her to be Doing Anything Stressful’
Drawing on qualitative research from rural and urban areas, this article contributes to evolving social research in Ghana on possible changes in the gendered distribution of domestic labour. Formulated within debates on ‘doing gender’ and ‘undoing gender’, this study examines the extent to which acts of gender transgression may potentially occur during peak reproductive periods in the lives of Ghanaian couples. The findings of the study indicate …
Norms and sexual relations among adolescents in the context of an intervention trial in rural Zambia
High levels of adolescent pregnancy and child marriage rates in low- and middle-income countries is an issue of concern to many stakeholders, including in Zambia where almost one-third of women give birth before age 18. The aim of this paper is to explore and analyse social norms concerning adolescents' sexual behaviour within the context of an intervention trial in rural communities in southern Zambia. It is based on a qualitative study applying…
‘Dealing With Men’s Spears’
This chapter focuses on the mobilization of women in girgweageeda gadeemga, literally the 'wives' meeting', of the pastoral Datooga of Tanzania, where tension related to what is perceived as threats to fundamental procreative processes is the heart of what is at stake. The central notion is that the sanctity of the female fertile body is continually infringed upon by destructive male forces, and that women have a sacred responsibility to collecti…
Vanilla bisquits and lobola bridewealth
Grasping the complexity of local discourse is vital in planning health interventions. The present study revealed that although delayed child bearing and schooling among girls enjoyed high status and legitimacy in the study area, the social and economic context worked to reward early marriage. Interventions to reduce early pregnancies in rural Zambian communities need to fundamentally address the material constraints that condition and reinforce a…
Silent politics and unknown numbers
This article addresses the gaps between knowledge, policy and practice in reproductive health by exploring the processes involved in translating Zambian abortion policy from paperwork to practice in a predominantly rural province. Central to these processes are rural health bureaucrats, who are tasked with administering and monitoring a myriad of reproductive health policies and programmes. The articles is based on eleven months of ethnographic f…
When abortion becomes public - Everyday politics of reproduction in rural Zambia
This article takes the public reaction to the discovery of an aborted foetus in a rural Zambian community as the empirical starting point for exploring the everyday politics of reproduction. It builds on eleven months of ethnographic fieldwork on abortion and abortion policy in Zambia in 2017 and 2018, including participant observation in the community where the episode took place and interviews with clinic staff and neighbours. The article explo…
Beyond the law
Misoprostol has during the past few years become an important obstetric drug used for different purposes both within and outside hospitals in Tanzania. In this paper, we analyze how misoprostol is perceived, accessed and used off-label as an abortion drug in the city and region of Dar es Salaam. The study took place in Dar es Salaam's three districts from July to November 2015, and had a qualitative explorative approach. We carried out in-depth i…
Why teach sexuality education in school? Teacher discretion in implementing comprehensive sexuality education in rural Zambia
The CSE had limited legitimacy in the community and was met with resistance from teachers tasked with its' implementation. In order to enhance ownership to the CSE program, local concerns about the contents of the curriculum and the parent-teacher role dilemma must be taken into consideration. Not addressing these challenges may undermine the policy's intention of increasing knowledge about sexuality and reproduction and empowering adolescents to…
Shaping the abortion policy – competing discourses on the Zambian termination of pregnancy act
We argue that the Zambian Termination of Pregnancy Act is ambiguous and leaves much room for interpretation. This paper challenges the notion that the Zambian abortion law is liberal and opens up for further discussion on the relationship between how a law is described and perceived by the public, and the rights to health and services ensured by it
An uneasy compromise’
While silence as a strategy works to protect the law enhancing the health and survival of young women, it may at the same time prevent the law from being fully effective. As a long term strategy, silence fails to expand awareness and access to safe abortion services, and may not sufficiently serve to fulfill the potential of the law to prevent abortion related maternal deaths
The access paradox
Legal frameworks are vital instruments for securing the right to health, but broad contextualized studies rather than classifications of law along a liberal-restrictive continuum are demanded in order to enhance existing knowledge on access to safe abortion services in a given context
A systems perspective on the importance of global health strategy developments for accomplishing today’s Sustainable Development Goals
A systems perspective on the importance of global health strategy developments for accomplishing today’s Sustainable Development Goals
Priority setting within health systems has not led to accountable, fair and sustainable solutions to improving population health. Providers, users and other stakeholders each have their own health and service priorities based on selected evidence, own values, expertise and preferences. Based on a historical account, this article analyses if contemporary health systems are appropriate to optimize population health within the framework of cross cut…
Researcher–researched relationship in qualitative research
BACKGROUND: The researcher role is highly debated in qualitative research. This article concerns the researcher-researched relationship. METHODS: A group of health science researchers anchored in various qualitative research traditions gathered in reflective group discussions over a period of two years. RESULTS: Efforts to establish an anti-authoritarian relationship between researcher and researched, negotiation of who actually "rules" the resea…
Reflections on informed choice in resource-poor settings
The seven Cs of the high acceptability of home-based VCT
HIV testing and counselling is a critical gateway to prevention and treatment. Yet, coverage remains insufficient, few couples are tested together and gender differences in access exist. We used an embedded mixed methods approach to investigate possible explanations for the high acceptance of home-based voluntary HIV counselling and testing (HB-VCT) in a pair-matched cluster-randomized trial in Zambia. A baseline survey included 1694 individuals …
Assessing performance enhancing tools
BACKGROUND: Health workers' motivation is a key determinant of the quality of health services, and poor motivation has been found to be an obstacle to service delivery in many low-income countries. In order to increase the quality of service delivery in the public sector in Tanzania, the Open Performance Review and Appraisal System (OPRAS) has been implemented, and a new results-based payment system, Payment for performance (P4P) is introduced in…
Challenges to fair decision-making processes in the context of health care services
Existing challenges related to individuals' influence of decision making processes in health care need to be addressed if greater participation is desired. There is a need for increased advocacy and a strengthening of responsive practices with an emphasis on the right of all individuals to participate in decision-making processes. This simultaneously implies an emphasis on assuring the distribution of information, training and education so that i…
Condom availability in high risk places and condom use
As late as thirty years into the HIV epidemic there are still important gaps in the availability of condoms in places where people meet new sexual partners in these three African districts. Considering that previous studies have found that improved condom availability and accessibility in high risk places have a potential to increase condom use among people with multiple partners, the present study findings indicate that substantial further effor…
When the obvious brother is not there
The Varying Vulnerability of African Orphans
This article is based on a qualitative study carried out in Lira District, northern Uganda, to assess the situation of orphans cared for in extended families. The objective of the article is to bring attention to the varying vulnerability of different categories of orphans. The methods employed in data collection included ethnographic fieldwork, qualitative interviews and focus group discussions. The study found that the decision-making process t…
Difficult choices
Infant feeding represents a great challenge in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (pMTCT). The international guidelines informing infant feeding counselling suggest feeding methods that reduce the risk of HIV transmission, and discourage mixed feeding (combining breastfeeding with other fluids and solids). The feasibility and the social acceptability of the recommended feeding methods are hotly debated currently. Through the do…
Silent politics and unknown numbers
This article addresses the gaps between knowledge, policy and practice in reproductive health by exploring the processes involved in translating Zambian abortion policy from paperwork to practice in a predominantly rural province. Central to these processes are rural health bureaucrats, who are tasked with administering and monitoring a myriad of reproductive health policies and programmes. The articles is based on eleven months of ethnographic f…
When abortion becomes public - Everyday politics of reproduction in rural Zambia
This article takes the public reaction to the discovery of an aborted foetus in a rural Zambian community as the empirical starting point for exploring the everyday politics of reproduction. It builds on eleven months of ethnographic fieldwork on abortion and abortion policy in Zambia in 2017 and 2018, including participant observation in the community where the episode took place and interviews with clinic staff and neighbours. The article explo…
Beyond the law
Misoprostol has during the past few years become an important obstetric drug used for different purposes both within and outside hospitals in Tanzania. In this paper, we analyze how misoprostol is perceived, accessed and used off-label as an abortion drug in the city and region of Dar es Salaam. The study took place in Dar es Salaam's three districts from July to November 2015, and had a qualitative explorative approach. We carried out in-depth i…
Technologies of hope? Motherhood, HIV and infant feeding in eastern Africa
A vast number of HIV positive mothers live with a known HIV positive status without an experienced ability to prevent the virus from spreading to their offspring. This article focuses on the dramatic effects on identity and sociality instigated by prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programmes, and discusses the potential for the development of HIV related activism linked to programme enrolment. Paying particular attention t…
Strong State Policies on Gender and Aid
This article presents a case study of how Bistandsnemnda (BN)/Digni, an umbrella organisation for Norwegian mission organisations and churches, responded to increased pressure from the Norwegian state to focus on gender equality and women's rights as part of their development aid work. BN initiated a special programme called Women Empowerment and Gender Equality in which the organisation displayed an unusually strong involvement. The level of inv…
Reflections on informed choice in resource-poor settings
Datoga
On HIV, Sex and Respect
The topic of concern in this paper is the manner in which global/y constructed AIDS and HIV control messages are received by the Datoga of Tanzania. The text will rejlect on how messages on safe and healthy sex in national/global HIV campaigns are not in accord with Datoga concepts and practices aimed at ensuring proper sexuality and fertility, and the troubled eflècts of such dissonance. In an attempt to grasp the dynamics at work in the encoun…
When the obvious brother is not there
The Varying Vulnerability of African Orphans
This article is based on a qualitative study carried out in Lira District, northern Uganda, to assess the situation of orphans cared for in extended families. The objective of the article is to bring attention to the varying vulnerability of different categories of orphans. The methods employed in data collection included ethnographic fieldwork, qualitative interviews and focus group discussions. The study found that the decision-making process t…
Constraints to educational opportunities of orphans
The objective of this article is to assess constraints on educational opportunities of orphans cared for within the extended family system in Lira district, northern Uganda. The data were collected through: review of school census records; ethnographic fieldwork; in-depth interviews with 21 community leaders, 45 heads of households caring for orphans and 35 orphans. Focus group discussions were held with men and women caring for orphans, communit…
Seclusion, Protection and Avoidance
This article deals with metida avoidance practices as they emerge in daily and ritual practice among the agro-pastoral Datoga-speaking peoples of Tanzania. The elaboration of the avoidance practices varies starkly between and within Datoga segments, but these practices are commonly particularly elaborate in connection with death or death-like events, and with birth or birth-like events. In the study area women may spend years of their lives with …
Difficult choices
Infant feeding represents a great challenge in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (pMTCT). The international guidelines informing infant feeding counselling suggest feeding methods that reduce the risk of HIV transmission, and discourage mixed feeding (combining breastfeeding with other fluids and solids). The feasibility and the social acceptability of the recommended feeding methods are hotly debated currently. Through the do…
Experiences of orphan care in Amach, Uganda
Uganda is estimated to have around two million orphans constituting approximately 19% of all the children in the country. This paper presents findings from a study on the experiences of orphan care among Langi people of Amach sub-county in Lira District, northern Uganda, and discusses their policy implications. The study utilised the following methods in data collection: eight months of ethnographic fieldwork; 21 in-depth interviews with communit…
The decentralisation-centralisation dilemma
BACKGROUND: The implementation of decentralisation reforms in the health sector of Tanzania started in the 1980s. These reforms were intended to relinquish substantial powers and resources to districts to improve the development of the health sector. Little is known about the impact of decentralisation on recruitment and distribution of health workers at the district level. Reported difficulties in recruiting health workers to remote districts le…
Gender Roles and Informal Care for Patients With Aids
As HIV/AIDS imposes an overwhelming pressure on the capacity of an already overburdened health care system in many African countries, families have increasingly been noted to supplement hospital care services for patients with AIDS. The aim of the present study is to generate knowledge on the experiences of family caregivers to the patients with AIDS at the household level in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Data were collected through in-depth interview…
Technologies of hope? Motherhood, HIV and infant feeding in eastern Africa
A vast number of HIV positive mothers live with a known HIV positive status without an experienced ability to prevent the virus from spreading to their offspring. This article focuses on the dramatic effects on identity and sociality instigated by prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programmes, and discusses the potential for the development of HIV related activism linked to programme enrolment. Paying particular attention t…
Assessing performance enhancing tools
BACKGROUND: Health workers' motivation is a key determinant of the quality of health services, and poor motivation has been found to be an obstacle to service delivery in many low-income countries. In order to increase the quality of service delivery in the public sector in Tanzania, the Open Performance Review and Appraisal System (OPRAS) has been implemented, and a new results-based payment system, Payment for performance (P4P) is introduced in…
Challenges to fair decision-making processes in the context of health care services
Existing challenges related to individuals' influence of decision making processes in health care need to be addressed if greater participation is desired. There is a need for increased advocacy and a strengthening of responsive practices with an emphasis on the right of all individuals to participate in decision-making processes. This simultaneously implies an emphasis on assuring the distribution of information, training and education so that i…
Condom availability in high risk places and condom use
As late as thirty years into the HIV epidemic there are still important gaps in the availability of condoms in places where people meet new sexual partners in these three African districts. Considering that previous studies have found that improved condom availability and accessibility in high risk places have a potential to increase condom use among people with multiple partners, the present study findings indicate that substantial further effor…
Strong State Policies on Gender and Aid
This article presents a case study of how Bistandsnemnda (BN)/Digni, an umbrella organisation for Norwegian mission organisations and churches, responded to increased pressure from the Norwegian state to focus on gender equality and women's rights as part of their development aid work. BN initiated a special programme called Women Empowerment and Gender Equality in which the organisation displayed an unusually strong involvement. The level of inv…
The seven Cs of the high acceptability of home-based VCT
HIV testing and counselling is a critical gateway to prevention and treatment. Yet, coverage remains insufficient, few couples are tested together and gender differences in access exist. We used an embedded mixed methods approach to investigate possible explanations for the high acceptance of home-based voluntary HIV counselling and testing (HB-VCT) in a pair-matched cluster-randomized trial in Zambia. A baseline survey included 1694 individuals …
Reflections on informed choice in resource-poor settings
Researcher–researched relationship in qualitative research
BACKGROUND: The researcher role is highly debated in qualitative research. This article concerns the researcher-researched relationship. METHODS: A group of health science researchers anchored in various qualitative research traditions gathered in reflective group discussions over a period of two years. RESULTS: Efforts to establish an anti-authoritarian relationship between researcher and researched, negotiation of who actually "rules" the resea…
Why teach sexuality education in school? Teacher discretion in implementing comprehensive sexuality education in rural Zambia
The CSE had limited legitimacy in the community and was met with resistance from teachers tasked with its' implementation. In order to enhance ownership to the CSE program, local concerns about the contents of the curriculum and the parent-teacher role dilemma must be taken into consideration. Not addressing these challenges may undermine the policy's intention of increasing knowledge about sexuality and reproduction and empowering adolescents to…
Shaping the abortion policy – competing discourses on the Zambian termination of pregnancy act
We argue that the Zambian Termination of Pregnancy Act is ambiguous and leaves much room for interpretation. This paper challenges the notion that the Zambian abortion law is liberal and opens up for further discussion on the relationship between how a law is described and perceived by the public, and the rights to health and services ensured by it
An uneasy compromise’
While silence as a strategy works to protect the law enhancing the health and survival of young women, it may at the same time prevent the law from being fully effective. As a long term strategy, silence fails to expand awareness and access to safe abortion services, and may not sufficiently serve to fulfill the potential of the law to prevent abortion related maternal deaths
The access paradox
Legal frameworks are vital instruments for securing the right to health, but broad contextualized studies rather than classifications of law along a liberal-restrictive continuum are demanded in order to enhance existing knowledge on access to safe abortion services in a given context
A systems perspective on the importance of global health strategy developments for accomplishing today’s Sustainable Development Goals
A systems perspective on the importance of global health strategy developments for accomplishing today’s Sustainable Development Goals
Priority setting within health systems has not led to accountable, fair and sustainable solutions to improving population health. Providers, users and other stakeholders each have their own health and service priorities based on selected evidence, own values, expertise and preferences. Based on a historical account, this article analyses if contemporary health systems are appropriate to optimize population health within the framework of cross cut…
‘Dealing With Men’s Spears’
This chapter focuses on the mobilization of women in girgweageeda gadeemga, literally the 'wives' meeting', of the pastoral Datooga of Tanzania, where tension related to what is perceived as threats to fundamental procreative processes is the heart of what is at stake. The central notion is that the sanctity of the female fertile body is continually infringed upon by destructive male forces, and that women have a sacred responsibility to collecti…
Sociology (23 obras) · Medicine (21 obras) · Political science (21 obras) · Economic growth (15 obras) · Psychology (14 obras) · Environmental health (13 obras) · Global Maternal and Child Health (13 obras) · Nursing (13 obras) · Socioeconomics (13 obras) · Population (12 obras)