Activities of traditional birth attendants in a local council in Nigeria, menace and corrective measures

Abstract

Pregnancy and child-bearing remain key aspects of a woman’s life and adequate health access is needed by the expectant mother to birth each child safely. Given the prevailing circumstances in certain localities in Nigeria, adequate health access for proper maternal care is lacking and absent in some cases. The result of this lack is the thriving presence of unskilled and untrained traditional birth attendants (TBAs) who in most cases reside locally and are easily assessable by expectant mothers. In particular, Ilaje a local council in Ondo state has a preponderance of unskilled and untrained TBAs which is increasing the scale of the problem and culminating in increased maternal and infant mortality. A number of other factors such as poverty, poor educational exposure, and primitive religious and cultural indoctrination have also been identified as causal factors in this regard. While steps have been taken to address this challenge by a previous state government, successive governments have not mounted similar interventionist responses. The ‘Abiye’ and ‘Agbebiye’ initiatives were home grown models to reduce the incessant proliferation of unskilled TBAs, reduce infant and maternal mortality, and to strengthen the coordination of referrals from the community health centres to the well-equipped hospitals, which led to Ondo State becoming the only state in Nigeria to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) of reducing maternal death, surpassing the 75% reduction goal. It is hoped that such initiatives will be sustained to continue to savour the gains.