Examine the Perception of Contemporary Midwives and Pre Service Midwives About the Practice of Traditional Birth Attendants in Kwasmintim District

Hannah Yawson

doi:10.7176/jhmn/94-04

Abstract

The paper focused on examining the perception of contemporary midwives and pre-service midwives about the practice of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) in Kwesimintsim District. It is believed that the success of the programme of Traditional Birth Attendants practice is dependent strongly on the cooperation and collaboration with midwives. Therefore, determining the perception of this key stakeholders (contemporary midwives and pre-service midwives) is fundamental to the quality maternal health care system: this is the motivation for this paper. The paper followed qualitative analytical approach with exploratory design. It emerged that despite the existing programme for TBAs practice, majority of the midwives and pre-service midwives perceived their practice as dangerous. It was also found The TBAs were perceived as though diligent but stereotyped, conservative and unwilling to sacrifice traditions and cultural for modern practices. It is recommended that the skilled birth attendants (Midwives and pre service midwives) should be engaged in the TBA programme for effective partnership. It is further recommended that community service with TBAs should be mandatory as part of the pre service programme for midwives. Keywords: Traditional Birth Attendants, Skilled Birth Attendants, Midwives, and Pre-service Midwives DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/94-04 Publication date: October 31 st 2021

Highlights

The Global health issues that have become predominate over the years is the child mortality
The midwives and pre-service midwives who had lived in rural areas or practiced in less endowed communities really appreciated the services of the Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and have had good relationship with them
These relatively few believed that if one would like to be successful in the health profession and support the community, she/he should build a cordial relationship with these TBAs

Summary

Introduction

The Global health issues that have become predominate over the years is the child mortality. The prevention of child mortality continues to be on the radar of global health forum As such the current Sustainable Development Goals, in its goal three (3) proposes to among other health related problems end child mortality by 2030 (Bryce, Black & Victora, 2013; Yawson, 2019). According to WHO, it is estimated that each year around 2.7 million newborns die in the first month of lives, worldwide and an estimated 303,000 women die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth (Bayou, 2014) This number of death resulting from pregnancy and child birth is alarming but detrimental to upward scaling of global development (Yawson, 2019)

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Results

Conclusion