TBAs: The ones there, when we are not

The role of Traditional birth attendants cannot be over or under emphasized, because whether we like it or they are here and have come to stay. They are at our grassroots; accessible, available and affordable giving the optimal “attention”, “care” and understanding needed and wanted by their clients – which we the conventional and orthodox medical health personnel cannot afford due to time, cost, resources, work environment and other factors beyond our control.

Back to the roots; African traditional healthcare delivery is grounded in thousands of years of knowledge and has sustained life, on its own or in concert with Western medicine. As many as 95% of women in developing countries (both educated and uneducated) seek medical attention from TBAs at one point or the other during the course of their pregnancy. They are deeply rooted in our societies.
Globally, TBAs assist in 60–80% of all deliveries and even more in the rural areas of developing countries [10]. Nigeria is a country with more than 160 million people and has about 70% of its population residing in rural areas. For many women living in rural areas, antenatal care as well as institutional deliveries with skilled health workers remains a distant reality. Inclination towards home births supervised by TBAs is associated with cultural norms and religious beliefs as well as cost and accessibility of the services.

Bearing all this in mind, especially in SubSaharan Africa of developing countries, it has still been reported that many women do not have access to properly trained and skilled personnel during child birth. This is the down side to the TBAs who are available when the professional health care personnel are not. Opinions about the relevance of TBAs in obstetric practice and reduction of maternal mortality rate may vary but there is a consensus on their proximity to the mothers which cannot be neglected to achieve our SDGs, especially SDG 3.
Hence, our project (Training The TBAs – TTT) and various dedications to ensuring that all TBAs in Nigeria are skilled and can contribute to the reduction of maternal and child mortality and morbidity. Therefore, let us all pay attention and invest into these set of service providers, because they reach far more than we can and are the ones there, when we are not.

REFERENCE
Knowledge and Practice of Prevention of Mother-To-Child-Transmission of HIV among Traditional Birth Attendants Practicing in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria; Unyime I. Eshiet and Polycarp G. Ekpe; Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Biopharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
The Pain Of Labour: Perspectives Of Traditional Birth Attendants In Edo State, Nigeria C. O. Imarengiaye, G. U. Otojahi, T. N. Otene And V. Y. Adam