Erica Kocher discovered public health while in high school through an internship with a sociology professor. That work — in sexual health and sexual rights — helped her realize public health is a way to meld interests in social and cultural factors as well as to have an impact in the world. An introductory global health course at Yale College solidified her interest in the issues the field addresses and questions it asks. Erica has been accepted into the five-year BA/MPH program at the Yale School of Public Health and is lead author on a paper just published by the journal, Women and Birth.
“Conceptions of pregnancy health and motivations for healthful behavior change among women in American Samoa,” is based on data gathered by a prior student working with Assistant Professor Nicola Hawley in American Samoa where obesity and related cardio-metabolic diseases are more prevalent than in most other populations in the world. One of the major findings in the paper is that pregnancy seems to be a time in Samoan culture during which women are expected to make healthful behavior changes for the benefit of their baby that they might otherwise be teased or judged for trying to make. However, while pregnancy may have given women more agency over their health decisions, the collective nature of Samoan culture means that family and community closely influence their decisions and independence. Nevertheless, pregnancy is potentially a key moment for intervention to address obesity and non-communicable disease in Samoan communities.
This summer, Erica is in Samoa with Hawley’s research team doing follow-up research with a comparative, mixed methods study in both Samoa and American Samoa. She is surveying and doing qualitative interviews with pregnant women to try to better understand what behavior changes women may be making during pregnancy, the motivations for these changes, and how family and culture may influence their decision-making process during pregnancy. They are specifically interested in how these factors can be applied to future clinical interactions and interventions to better encourage women to make behavior changes to benefit the health of their children and their own health, as well as how cultural differences between Samoa and the more westernized American Samoa play out in terms of health.