Constraints in using traditional birth attendants in modern family planning: lessons from selected communities in Northern Ghana

Abstract

Pioneering activities in family planning in Ghana were hospital/clinic-based, aimed at assisting couples to space their children, prevent unwanted pregnancies, manage infertility and improve upon their overall reproductive health. Community-based approaches to family planning services delivery geared towards equipping Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and Community-Based Distributors (CBDs) with non-clinical family planning methods for them to serve as outlets for these methods in rural peripheral communities started in the 1990s in northern Ghana. Using a case study approach, this study tests the plausibility of using traditional health providers, particularly TBAs, as agents of community-based family planning in selected communities in the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions of Ghana. The data show that TBAs, especially herbalists and spiritualist, occupy an ambivalent role in the provision of modern family planning services. Based on the differential orientation of TBAs to the delivery of modern planning family services, the paper recommends a selective targeting approach to the engagement of TBAs in modern family planning activities in Ghana.Ghana Journal of Development Studies Vol. 3(1) 2006: 55-65