“Good mothers, lazy mothers”: Analyzing impacts of individual responsibility discourse in maternal and child healthcare in Vanuatu

The hidden curriculum can impact patient/provider interactions impacting trust and influencing health outcomes. It permeates discourse in clinical encounters across the global south and is one way that colonialism reproduces structural violence within marginalized communities. Researchers analyzed data from clinical encounters in Vanuatu in the South Pacific and present a series of vignettes to illustrate how the hidden curriculum appears and is disseminated through language about “good” and “lazy” mothering. Researchers conclude that to improve health equity, we must consider the ways moral discourse is presented in the hidden curriculum and work to provide supportive health care encounters. 

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