Traditional Birth Attendant - Training and Focus of Work

Training and Focus of Work

Traditional birth attendants are often older women, respected in their communities. They consider themselves as private health care practitioners who respond to requests for service. The focus of their work is to assist women during delivery and immediately post-partum. Frequently their assistance includes helping with household chores.

TBAs may not have any formal training on how to attend pregnant women. Many are highly experienced in well woman care including how to recognize and respond appropriately to complications of pregnancy. Due to the lack of education in some TBAs, the way many attended the delivery was risky for women and their babies, leading to poor health outcomes and even death.

It is being increasingly recognized that TBAs may have a role to play in improving health outcomes in developing countries because of their access to communities and the relationships they share with women in local communities, especially if women are unable to access skilled care. Some countries, training institutes and non-governmental agencies are initiating efforts to train TBAs in basic and emergency obstetric care, family planning, and other maternal health topics, in order to enhance the links between modern health care services and the community, and to improve the chances for better health outcomes among mothers and babies. There are some findings that targeted interventions for training TBAs can lead to reduced perinatal mortality. However, there is little evidence of largescale effectiveness of such programmes, as they are rarely integrated within a general strategy for improving maternal and child care.