Home birth attendants in low income countries: who are they and what do they do?

Public Deposited
Analytics

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
Request Version for Screen Reader
Creator
  • Garces, Ana
    • Other Affiliation: IMSALUD, Guatemala City, Guatemala
  • McClure, Elizabeth M
    • Other Affiliation: Research Triangle Institute, Durham, NC, USA
  • Chomba, Elwyn
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia
  • Patel, Archana
    • Other Affiliation: Indira Ghandi College of Medicine, Nagpur, India
  • Pasha, Omrana
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan
  • Tshefu, Antoinette
    • Other Affiliation: Kinshasa School of Public Health, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Esamai, Fabian
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya
  • Goudar, Shivaprasad
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Belgaum, India
  • Lokangaka, Adrien
    • Other Affiliation: Kinshasa School of Public Health, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Hambidge, K
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Pediatric Nutrition, Denver University School of Public Health, Denver, CO, USA
  • Wright, Linda L
    • Other Affiliation: Center for Research for Mothers and Children, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, MD, USA
  • Koso-Thomas, Marion
    • Other Affiliation: Center for Research for Mothers and Children, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, MD, USA
  • Bose, Carl
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics
  • Carlo, Waldemar A
    • Other Affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
  • Liechty, Edward A
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, USA
  • Hibberd, Patricia L
    • Other Affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
  • Bucher, Sherri
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, USA
  • Whitworth, Ryan
    • Other Affiliation: Research Triangle Institute, Durham, NC, USA
  • Goldenberg, Robert L
    • Other Affiliation: Department Obstetrics and Gynecology, Columbia University, NY, USA
Abstract
  • Abstract Background Nearly half the world’s babies are born at home. We sought to evaluate the training, knowledge, skills, and access to medical equipment and testing for home birth attendants across 7 international sites. Methods Face-to-face interviews were done by trained interviewers to assess level of training, knowledge and practices regarding care during the antenatal, intrapartum and postpartum periods. The survey was administered to a sample of birth attendants conducting home or out-of-facility deliveries in 7 sites in 6 countries (India, Pakistan, Guatemala, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Zambia). Results A total of 1226 home birth attendants were surveyed. Less than half the birth attendants were literate. Eighty percent had one month or less of formal training. Most home birth attendants did not have basic equipment (e.g., blood pressure apparatus, stethoscope, infant bag and mask manual resuscitator). Reporting of births and maternal and neonatal deaths to government agencies was low. Indian auxilliary nurse midwives, who perform some home but mainly clinic births, were far better trained and differed in many characteristics from the birth attendants who only performed deliveries at home. Conclusions Home birth attendants in low-income countries were often illiterate, could not read numbers and had little formal training. Most had few of the skills or access to tests, medications and equipment that are necessary to reduce maternal, fetal or neonatal mortality.
Date of publication
DOI
Identifier
Resource type
  • Article
Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Rights holder
  • Ana Garces et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
License
Journal title
  • BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
Journal volume
  • 12
Journal issue
  • 1
Page start
  • 34
Language
  • English
Is the article or chapter peer-reviewed?
  • Yes
ISSN
  • 1471-2393
Bibliographic citation
  • BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 2012 May 14;12(1):34
Publisher
  • BioMed Central Ltd
Access right
  • Open Access
Date uploaded
  • July 16, 2016

Relations

Parents:

This work has no parents.

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details 12884_2011_article_552.pdf 2019-05-07 Public Download
file details 12884_2011_552_moesm4_esm.ppt 2019-05-07 Public Download
file details 12884_2011_552_moesm3_esm.ppt 2019-05-07 Public Download
file details 12884_2011_552_moesm1_esm.png 2019-05-07 Public Download
file details 12884_2011_552_moesm2_esm.png 2019-05-07 Public Download