Paschaline, Sam and Amaka have always wondered why the pregnant women who they have been trying to help access quality delivery services at the primary health center (PHC), keep evading the health centers for the homes of the traditional birth attendants (TBA). To Paschaline and her friends working for GEANCO on the Anemia control program, the TBAs are not hygenic and professional enough to attend to the women. But the women keep testifying about the ‘better’ care they receive from the TBAs.
Three months ago, the team attended a Health Care Delivery workshop organized by Management Development Institute (MDI) in collaboration with Lagos Business School (LBS). At the end of the MDI-LBS experience, the team was asked to carry out a Community Health Intervention Program (CHIP) for their communities. It was an easy decision for Paschaline and her group to decide that repositioning the practices of the TBA was the way to go.
The Traditional Birth AttendantsThese are women who have skills in birth attendance. They inherited these skills from their mothers or learnt it by apprenticing. In the traditional African community, these TBAs were the accepted midwives, and they did their work with a great sense of duty to their community and to Chukwu – God.