Investigating the Services and Practices of Traditional Birth Attendants in Maternal and Neonatal Health Care in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State

ABSTRACT Traditional Birth Attendants are traditional, independent non-formally trained and community based provider of care during pregnancy, labour and post partum period. Despite the important role TBAs play, some of their services and practices are very crude and ineffective. This analytical descriptive survey was therefore carried out to investigate the services and practices of TBAs in selected communities of Southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa State. The study population comprises of 385 TBAs who met the inclusion criteria. Four objectives and four research question where sket up. Also two hypotheses were postulated to test relationship between variable. A researcher self developed questionnaire was used to collect data between 13thJuly to 27th august 2015. The data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Descriptive statistics in form of frequency and percentage table as well as bar chart, were used to summarize the data. The Pearson chi-square(X2 ) was used to test for relationship between variables. Major finding from the study showed that, there is a significance relationship between TBAs age and their routine practices for antenatal care as the chi-square competed Xc 2 = 740.85 is ≥ the chi-square critical X2 = 41.38. There was also a significant relationship between age of TBAs and their practices during labour (Xc 2 = 846.45 ≥ X1 2 = 36.42). Also there is a significant relationship between TBAs age and their routine practices during delivery. There is also a significant TBAs age and their routine practices for post partum care. The study also showed that there is a significance relationship between educational attainment of TBAs and their hygiene practices (Xc 2 = 318.614 ≥ X1 2 = 36.30). The study reveals that most TBAs render delivery services, most of them encouraged their clients to engage in food taboos during pregnancy. Also most of the TBAs know the important of hand washing before and after a procedure. Most TBAs massage the abdomen of pregnant women during pregnancy. The study also showed that, most TBAs see referral as their last resort when they are face with complications and most of the TBAs lack the knowledge of early danger signs in expectant mothers. Based on these findings, it is therefore recommended that TBAs should be properly trained by orthodox health care practitioners in the area of identifying early signs of complications during antenatal, intranatal and the post-partum period.