ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on women's health care in a multicultural society. Events such as human-made and natural disasters, the increasing longevity of women and changing family structures have influenced the role that women play in their own cultural groups and in society. The chapter considers how nursing as a caring profession has been viewed in some societies. An understanding of individual and cultural beliefs about menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth, for example, can be considered essential to an understanding of women's health care in a multicultural society. Muslim women are considered to be unclean for 40 days after giving birth. The 'low' status afforded to women in some societies is reflected in how girl and boy babies are viewed and in some parts of the world 'infanticide of female babies still persists, especially in rural areas'. Childbirth is associated with long-term health problems as well as those of an immediate nature.
