Challenges and opportunities around reproductive health during a flood: Insight from Belkuchi Upazila, Bangladesh

Reproductive health matters are central to general health and human development because they are directly connected to a mother’s and child’s health and wellbeing. Reproductive health issues are under-researched in the context of humanitarian settings and especially during natural disasters. Knowledge of the ways internally displaced women cope with pregnancy, miscarriages, unsafe abortions and the challenges that they face is limited. This research aims to contribute to this knowledge-gap by bringing context-specific information from a flood-prone sub-district in Bangladesh. The research contributes to the mode of understanding by investigating:

1. What are the challenges that public health facilities experience in relation to ‘menstrual regulation’ and ‘post abortion care’ services in dry and flood conditions and how can these challenges be overcome? 
2. What are the challenges pregnant women experience during a flood and how can their challenges be overcome?

By triangulating disaster data, health facility assessments, discussions with health workers and interviews with pregnant women, this study brings the reproductive health challenges, as well as opportunities to overcome them, to the fore.