Abstracts Women’s anxieties relating to documentation, registration, time, and place of childbirth in Kufr ‘Aqab, East Jerusalem: a qualitative study Doaa Hammoudeh, Layaly Hamayel, Rita Giacaman Abstract Background Since 1967, about 14 000 Palestinians have had their Jerusalem residency revoked, and thousands Published Online struggle to maintain Jerusalem residency. Although physically located outside the Separation Wall, the Kufr ‘Aqab August 1, 2017 neighbourhood is inside Israeli-defined greater Jerusalem, thereby providing legal basis for holders of Jerusalem Institute of Community identity cards to maintain their Jerusalem residency status. It also provides Jerusalem identity card holders who are and Public Health, Birzeit University, Ramallah, married to West Bank identity card holders with a place to live with family members who otherwise cannot access occupied Palestinian territory or reside in Jerusalem without a permit (required to cross checkpoints to reach Jerusalem). In this paper, we focus (D Hammoudeh MSc, on a specific vulnerability during childbearing through exploring select case studies of women’s narratives as they L Hamayel BA, relate to childbirth-related anxiety and dilemmas before and after Jerusalem residency registration. Prof R Giacaman PharmD) Correspondence to: Doaa Hammoudeh, Methods We conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 27 women residing in Kufr ‘Aqab, carrying Institute of Community Jerusalem or West Bank IDs (age range 24–44 years). Participants were recruited through snowballing. Interviews and Public Health, were transcribed verbatim in Arabic and analysed thematically through repeated reading, whereby patterns, themes, Birzeit University, Ramallah, and sub-themes gradually appeared. Key sub-themes related to childbearing were extrapolated. Participants provided occupied Palestinian territory
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