Maternal and Child Care in Rural Areas: the Role of Traditional Birth Attendants in Bendel State of Nigeria

as in most developing countries, the pro-vision of health care to people in remote rural areas presents difficult problems. Skilled health manpower are scarce and the few that are available are un-willing to work in these areas because of inadequate facilities and lack of job satisfaction. Thus in the distribution of health services a considerable gap exists between the relatively few in urban areas and the teaming population in rural areas. In order to bridge the gap between the various sectors of the population in health coverage, many countries have recently introduced into their health programmes new strategies which utilize resources existing in the community for providing health care for the community. Health workers in the community include herbalists, traditional healers and traditional birth attendants. Although it is generally agreed that given support from the established health system, indigenous practitioners can become important allies in organiz-ing efforts to improve the health of a community,1 it is none the less recognized that certain practices of traditional healers may be harmful3-3 and therefore constitute an obstacle to their involvement in organized health services. Furthermore the beliefs and attitudes of traditional practitioners may preclude them from accepting to be involved in modern health services. Studies are therefore necessary in various communities to define the nature of health services rendered by traditional practitioners, their beliefs and attitudes, and their training requirements. There has been no such study in the Bendel State of Nigeria. With an estimated population of 4.