Infection prevention and control practice among traditional birth attendants in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background The World Health Organization has defined a traditional birth attendant as a ‘person who assists the mother during childbirth and initially acquired her skills by delivering babies herself or through apprenticeship to other traditional birth attendants’. It is estimated that over 40 million neonatal deaths occur annually worldwide; some of these deaths are the result of infection, which may be attributed to the practices of traditional birth attendants. In Nigeria, maternal mortality because of puerperal sepsis occurs in 12% of cases. This study aimed to assess infection prevention and control practice among traditional birth attendants in Lagos State, Nigeria. Methods This is a descriptive study of infection prevention and control among traditional birth attendants in the three local government areas of Ikorordu, Mushin and Surulere. Simple random sampling (balloting) was used to select 144 registered traditional birth attendants. A self-structured questionnaire made up of four sections (sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and practice) was used for data collection. The participant knowledge scores were categorised into ‘good’ (60–100%) and ‘poor’ (0–59%). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data and tested for significance at P=0.005. Results The mean age of the respondents was 48 ± 10.6 years. Over one-third (37.5%) of the respondents had poor knowledge of infection control. There was a statistically significant association between respondent age and practice of infection prevention and control (P=0.003). There was no significant difference between the duration of practice and infection prevention and control (P=0.688). Additionally, there was no significant association between the length of training and infection prevention and control (P=0.890). Conclusions There is a need to increase the knowledge of traditional birth attendants by organising training for them on infection prevention and control. Over 70% of the respondents identified that practice could be improved by additional training. This will reduce maternal and infant morbidity and mortality caused by infection in Lagos, Nigeria.