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Reproductive health care services in Bangladesh are inadequate to say the least. Rural women have little or no access to health care services and remain reluctant to consult a doctor due to lack of encouragement from family members and their tendency to rely heavily on traditional healer´s medicine. There is inadequate research in regard to the causes such as beliefs and attitudes towards reproductive health among Bangladeshi women. This study used two tiered qualitative research methodology employing in-depth one-to-one interviews and focus group discussions using semi-structure questions; to confirm and validate the data collected from three villages in Rajshahi, Bangladesh. During the fieldwork, 30 one-to-one interviews and three focus group discussions were conducted using snowball sampling technique. The findings reveal three critical themes regarding rural women´s belief and attitudes toward reproductive health - a strong belief in traditional healers; a firm belief of following in-laws and seniors/elders, and superstitions regarding fertility, pregnancy and child-birth.

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Tasmiha Tarafder is an M.A in communication by research from University of Canberra. She has received various international awards for research publications.Dr Parves Sultan is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the Central Queensland University, Australia. Prior to this, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Canberra, Australia.

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