Assessment of Traditional Maternal Health Care Service Delivery among Health Centres in Southwest, Nigeria

It is believed a huge percentage of women’s that are maternal wellbeing services seekers in Nigeria believe more in and give preference to traditional (indigenous and faith-based) maternal health services which is a major factor of high maternal mortality in the country. Hence, this study examine assessment of traditional maternal health care service delivery among health centres in Southwest, Nigeria. The design for this study was descriptive survey research. The population of the study comprised all traditional birth attendants who own traditional maternity healthcare centres (TMHCs) in Southwestern Nigeria. The sample size of 30 traditional birth attendant’s owner were selected from the target population using purposive sampling technique. A self-designed key Informant Interview (KII) guide was used to gather elicit information from the respondents. The instrument was assessed by experts in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology for instrument's validity while Intercoder and intracoder was to test the internal reliability. Data was analysiszed using content analysis. The results shows that traditional maternal health care centres comprised informal and semi-formal birth delivery experts with several years of experience. Their primary goal were birth delivery, spiritual services and education/health talks, prayer and deliverance sessions (spiritual services).The study revealed that both the poor and the rich, educated and non-educated patronize TMHCs. The study concluded that patronage of traditional maternal services is an inclined component to high maternal mortality in the study Area. It is recommended that Policy review of TMHCs training programmes, and increased collaboration between Morden healthcare facilities and TMHCs should all be done to encourage community support for TBAs practices. Keywords: Faith-based, Traditional maternal healthcare, Indigenous, Preference