This ethnographic study explores an anomaly in the reproductive health situation of poor rural women in Bangladesh, namely the coexistence of significant fertility reduction at the same time as continued high maternal mortality due to dependency on home deliveries in the absence of skilled health professionals and health complications resulting from unsafe abortions. Inspired by the feminist conceptualisation of agency, the study resurrects the importance of considering culture and context in understanding reproductive decisions, as opposed to a rational individualistic notion of agency. Comparison between mainstream patrilineal Bengali and matrilinealmatrilocal indigenous Garos in the same rural location enables the study to demonstrate how complex factors intersect and interact to form gender power structures in shaping reproductive practice. A combination of the capabilities framework and the social relations framework informed by feminist concepts of gender, agency and empowerment guided the data collection process and analysis of the findings. A village named Gachhabari (Tangail district, Dhaka division), Bangladesh, was purposively selected for its mixed ethnic population of patrilineal Bengali (mainstream Muslims and Hindu minority) and indigenous matrilineal Garo communities. By incorporating women’s “voices” articulated through their own narratives, the study aims to show how poor women from different ethnic backgrounds experience and navigate power at the household, community, market and the state level in relation to their reproductive practice.