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| Title: | Constraints in using traditional birth attendants in modern family planning: lessons from northern Ghana |
| Author: | Galaa, Sylvester Z. |
| Year: | 2006 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Social Development in Africa (ISSN 1012-1080) |
| Volume: | 21 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 119-133 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | biblio. refs. |
| Geographic terms: | Ghana West Africa |
| Subjects: | family planning healers midwives Medicine, Nutrition, Public Health Birth control reproductive health Family size |
| Abstract: | Pioneering activities in family planning in Ghana were hospital/clinic based, aimed at assisting couples to space their children, prevent unwanted pregnancies, manage infertility and improve upon their overall reproductive health. Community-based approaches to family planning services delivery geared towards equipping traditional birth attendants (TBAs) and community-based distributors with non-clinical family planning methods for them to serve as outlets for these methods in peripheral rural communities started in the 1990s in the northern sector of Ghana. Using a case study approach, this study sought to test the efficacy of using traditional health providers, particularly TBAs, as agents of community-based family planning in selected communities in the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions of Ghana. The data show that TBAs, especially the herbalist and spiritualist, play an ambivalent role in the provision of modern family planning services. Based on the differential orientation of TBAs to the delivery of modern family planning services, the paper recommends a selective targeting approach to the engagement of TBAs in modern family planning activities in Ghana. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract] |
