Beliefs and traditions related to a child´s first year of life : a study of the Northwest of Portugal

Abstract

In this paper we propose an approach to investigate, in the North-west of Portugal, the parents’ behaviour at birth and during the first year of life of their children. We compare the heritage, specifically the beliefs and traditions, with the changes that resulted from the recent and deep cultural transformations that have taken place in Portugal in the last few decades. In parallel, we tried to determine if the parents’ behaviours, based on beliefs and traditions, can affect the children’s health. We based our investigation on standardized interviews with 76 mothers of one-year-old children (born between January and December 2001) who lived in two parishes of Vizela city. This is a territory where a more traditional way of life prevails than in other territories of the centre and south of the country, where there is a strong attachment for religious and social values and where the influence of the ancestral traditions is still alive. The paper concludes that cultural heritage can have important impact on individual health. Health professionals, who work in primary care and in hospitals, must be aware of the responsibility they have to change this scenario.