In Jordan, despite being one of the most modern countries in the Middle East, postnatal care services are still underutilized by rural Jordanian mothers. The purpose of this study is to explore, analyse and critique the postnatal cultural health beliefs, knowledge and practices of rural Jordanian mothers.

Design: a critical ethnographic approach was used to critically investigate the cultural health issues of 13 rural Jordanian postpartum mothers from four rural areas in the Northeast governorate which is characterized rural populated governorate. The findings showed that rural Jordanian mothers depended on the cultural health beliefs and knowledge to perform the postnatal care practices. Conclusion and recommendations: most of the rural Jordanian postpartum mothers depended on cultural beliefs and practices as a mode of health seeking behavior, in preference to available government health care services for care of their infants. Thus the rural Jordanian mothers are in need of supportive health educational services to increase their level of health knowledge and enhance the recommended health practices.