Intro

               Culture has a strong influence on health in a multitude of ways (Skolnik, 2016).  Eating a strong healthy diet, perceptions of the causes of illnesses, and the willingness to use available health services all have a heavy impact on the overall health of a culture (Skolnik, 2016).   Guatemala is no different than this norm, as the cultural influences have a strong impact on the overall health of the country. 

Gender norms

               While visiting Guatemala in 2018, it was easily noticeable how strongly the expectation of the women taking care of a children’s health was evident.  While participating in a daily health clinic, every pediatric patient that visited was accompanied by a matriarchal figure.  I pointed this out to the attending physician and she also said this was one of the first things she noticed.  She also reported that in the state of our clinic, Zacapa, Guatemala, it was commonplace for men to be gone for the entire week finding whatever work they could, and the women would stay home with the children and care for them. 

Breastfeeding

               Despite overwhelming evidence that exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for the first 6 months of a baby’s life is significant to early childhood health, only 39% of mothers in low income countries EBF (Skolnik, 2016).  However, despite Guatemala easily falling into the range of a low-income country, approximately 49% of mothers EBF for the first 6 months of their children’s lives, although there is evidence this may be over reported (Slater, Mazariegos, & Ramirez-Zea, 2016).  Some commonly identified obstacles to EBF were fears of the sufficiency of EBF, concerns of childhood illness, and familial pressures, particularly from paternal grandmothers (Deeney & Harris‐Fry, 2020).  Considering that malnourishment is such a dominant concern in Guatemala, and the fact that EBF helps prevent malnourishment early in life (Deeney & Harris‐Fry, 2020), one would think that the rate of EBF would be higher.

Prostitution and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)

            Another topic that was widely discussed during my trip to Guatemala was the common place of prostitution.  When men went away for work for the week, often it was into the mountains of Guatemala for mining jobs.  There were prostitutes available to them at all times and the use of condoms were minimal.  When the men would return to their wives on the weekends, they would then pass on their STIs to their wives.  Then the women would come into the clinics and complain of urinary symptoms but having an STI.  The women would be treated, but the men would go without treatment and the disease reoccurance would be cyclical.