ArticlePLOS global public health2025
Beyond 'Go and bring your husband': a COM-B guided qualitative study on the barriers to male involvement in antenatal care in Bamenda Health District, Cameroon.
Article in PLOS global public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Public awareness and acceptance of malaria vaccine in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Gender dynamics affecting women's uptake of maternal health service in agrarian and pastoral settings in Ethiopia: a community-based cross-sectional study.Reproductive health · 2026Article
- 'I am a father but not pregnant': a qualitative analysis of the perspectives of pregnant couples on male partner role during pregnancy care in Bamenda, Cameroon.Reproductive health · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Maternal and infant mortality remains a major public health concern in sub-Saharan Africa. While male involvement in pregnancy and child birth has proven to be an effective intervention that can significantly reduce these deaths, low-income settings like Cameroon continue to encounter obstacles in engaging men in maternal and child health services. This study seeks to examine and contextualize barriers to male partner involvement in antenatal care in order to inform the development of an intervention aimed at promoting male participation in maternal and child health in Cameroon. We employed a qualitative approach drawing upon 68 semi-structured interviews (SSIs) and three focus group discussions (FGDs). This involved purposively selected pregnant women (SSIs-38; FGD-01), male partners (SSIs-30; FGD-01) and health workers (FGD-01). Semi-structured interviews and group discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed and organized using Nvivo. Guided by the Capability, Opportunity and Motivation (COM-B) model of behaviour and Theoretical Domains Framework, we coded and analyzed data using directed content analysis, followed by inductive thematic analysis. Our findings suggest that, the behaviour of expectant fathers during pregnancy is shaped by the dynamic interaction between limited awareness on the role of men in pregnancy care and limited maternal agency to initiate or involve their partners in antenatal care. We also noted that the low motivation of male partners to participate in antenatal care is at the intersection of limiting health system approaches that have not moved beyond mandating women to go and bring their husbands, restrictive gender norms on masculinity-underpinned by the perception that antenatal care is a woman's affair and the fear of judgement/HIV testing. Based on our findings, we recommend that health system approaches specifically take into account existing knowledge gaps on male partner role, culture-specific gender norms and restructure the health system to promote male participation in maternal and child health services.
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Registered trials
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