Safety nets beyond borders, bodies, and barriers: informal reproductive healthcare adaptation and coping strategies of undocumented Afghan women migrants in Pakistan.

PURPOSE: Undocumented Afghan women migrants in Pakistan face profound barriers to reproductive healthcare. This study examines the informal reproductive healthcare strategies of undocumented Afghan women migrants living in Peshawar, focusing on the invisible safety nets they construct in response to legal and institutional exclusion.

METHOD: The study employed a qualitative research method by conducting narrative in-depth interviews, focus group discussions with undocumented Afghan women migrants, and five key informant interviews. The study conducted a narrative-informed thematic analysis grounded in concepts of social networks, everyday bordering, and reproductive justice.

RESULTS: The study findings revealed that public facilities are widely perceived as sites of document checking, humiliation, and potential exposure to immigration authorities, leading women to anticipate exclusion and pre-emptively turn away from formal care. In this context, traditional birth attendants, small private clinics, pharmacies, and home-based remedies form a plural, informal care landscape, accessed and evaluated through dense kinship and neighborhood networks. Community-based practices, rotating loans, information sharing, accompaniment, and emotional support, operate as invisible safety nets that partially compensate for state neglect..

CONCLUSION: The study calls for decoupling reproductive care from immigration control while engaging pragmatically with existing informal providers and community networks to promote reproductive justice and well-being.