\[[@pone.0207651.ref026]\], in recent years taken on a more private character and were surrounded by varying degrees of secrecy. Some health workers even mentioned that these options did not exist any longer. We did however find that ceremonies to appease the spirits continue to take place albeit are not talked openly about. The ceremonies take place at the local healers' homes or at the women's own homes with only a few select people invited. Although some women claimed that local healers' practises oppose their Orthodox Christian beliefs, the local healers on their side referred many of their clients to holy water.

In a study on cervical cancer in Ethiopia, the majority of the affected women did not perceive 'modern' medicine as the preferred mode of treatment as they believed thefor children and household chores. It is thus clear that the structural barriers to reaching appropriate health services were substantial and severely limited the women's awareness of the condition and the possibility to reach the health facilities. The women's power to make decisions was moreover hampered through very early marriage, which for many had implications for the possibility to go to school and for early pregnancies, which again are associated with high risk of obstetric complications \[[@pone.0207651.ref037]\]. Women's autonomy and freedom to make decisions are moreover largely inhibited by patriarchy and social norms in the Ethiopian rural context, and this consequently has a negative impact on health care seeking among women \[[@pone.0207651.ref038]\]. It was clear that the women's delay in health care seeking was strongly embedded in the