Click on the titles below to explore a selection of Dr. Mari Dumbaugh's diverse peer-reviewed work, published in the top global health, maternal, sexual and reproductive health and medical anthropology journals in the field. Her articles are cited by academics around the world. More of Dr. Dumbaugh's work is available on Google Scholar.

Evaluating the comparative effectiveness of different demand side interventions to increase maternal health service utilization and practice of birth spacing in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo: an innovative, mixed methods approach

Mari Dumbaugh, Wyvine Bapolisi, Jennie van de Weerd, Michel Zabiti, Paula Mommers, Ghislain Bisimwa Balaluka, Sonja Merten

In this protocol we describe a mixed methods study in the province of South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo evaluating the effectiveness of different demand side strategies to increase maternal health service utilization and the practice of birth spacing. Conditional service subsidization, conditional cash transfers and non-monetary incentives aim to encourage women to use maternal health services and practice birth spacing in two different health districts. Our methodology will comparatively evaluate the effectiveness of different approaches against each other and no intervention.

Navigating fertility, reproduction and modern contraception in the fragile context of South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo: ‘Les enfants sont une richesse’

Mari Dumbaugh, Wyvine Bapolisi, Ghislain Bisimwa, Marie-Chantale Mwamini, Paula Mommers & Sonja Merten

Modern contraception has created new possibilities for reimagining reproductive norms and has generated new socio-cultural uncertainties in South Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo. Using inductive analysis of women’s reproductive narratives, this paper explores how women in a high fertility context encounter and integrate recently introduced family planning and modern contraceptive education and services into their lives. As foundational socio-cultural norms confront the new reproductive possibilities offered by contraception, power dynamics shift and norms are called into question, re-interpreted and re-negotiated. Reproduction is located as a socially constructed process at the intersection of fertility norms, power dynamics, institutional practices, embodied realties and personal desires. In many ways the possibilities created by contraception – meant to increase certainty in the lives of users – actually increase uncertainty. The complexity of reproductive navigation reveals the shortcomings of reproductive theory and health and development discourses which view women and men as autonomous decision makers, removing them from the multiplicity of influencing factors, histories and power dynamics within which they realise their reproductive lives.

Perceptions of, attitudes towards and barriers to male involvement in newborn care in rural Ghana, West Africa: a qualitative analysis

Mari Dumbaugh, Charlotte Tawiah-Agyemang, Alexander Manu, Guus HA ten Asbroek, Betty Kirkwood, Zelee Hill

Male involvement in various health practices is recognized as an important factor in improving maternal and child health outcomes. Male involvement interventions involve men in a variety of ways, at varying levels of inclusion and use a range of outcome measures. There is little agreement on how male involvement should be measured and some authors contend that male involvement may actually be detrimental to women’s empowerment and autonomy. Few studies explore the realities, perceptions, determinants and efficacy of male involvement in newborn care, especially in African contexts.