TRADITIONAL BIRTH ATTENDANTS IN OUR COMMUNITIES

'For children are His reward! They are His reward!!! Brethren prayers, prayers!!!'
That was the sound I heard when I visited the birth center of a Traditional Birth Attendant. 
Later, I heard the groaning of a woman in labour followed by a cry of a newborn baby as 
the shout of 'praise the Lord' filled the air.
Traditional Birth Attendants  (TBAs) are people
who help pregnant women before and after the delivery of their babies according to traditional methods.  Many of them believe that it has to be a divine call from the gods (backed by prayers 
to the Almighty God) to be privileged to welcome newborns into this earth.
Majority of these TBAs are illiterate, poor, unkept and lack basic knowledge of information on maternity and child birth practices.
Then, why do most rural people patronize them more than the modern healthcare centers. 
When I asked this question, these were the  answers I got. That:
It's always a family member's decision especially the husband or an elderly person in the
 community that persuade them to go there;
The TBA is sometimes related to the patient;
The TBAs are readily available within the communities;
The practices of the TBAs are culturally acceptable to the rural dwellers;
They see hospital as meant for rich people;
They hate the attitude of most modern healthcare providers;
Finally, the services of the TBAs are cheaper.
Yet, maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality in the community can be traced to the unacceptable and unhygienic practices of TBAs in the care of newborns.
Again, the shortcomings of  a TBA is the harmful traditional practices which has harmful effects on the patients; very unhygienic and unconfirmed places for their referral practices.
Therefore, training and retrainig the TBAs will help us deal with some of the cultural practices that fight against safe motherhood. Training them at the rural areas especially will also focus on areas of hygiene, neatness,what has to be done, when it should be done, how important the health of patient is and in cases of complications/emergencies.
Prayers are very good for those that believe in it but it is better to be equipped with knowledge of what to do in issues of life and death so that we can boldly look up to the certified TBAs in our communities for child delivery and care of newborns.