Christine Chong
Country: USA
Background: Biological Sciences
Research Project: Research Protocol for Exploring the Local Women’s Beliefs about the Piave Maternity Ward and Counselling Centre and Traditional Services in Nakuru, Kenya
In the Rift Valley Province in Kenya, it has been reported that over 66% of women give birth at home and over 30% of women use a traditional birth attendant at birth (Kenya DHS 2008). More specifically, in the Nakuru district, the hospitals and public health centres were insufficiently equipped in addition to only about 40% of births being attended by qualified health workers (Reach Out to Humanity 2006). Because of these facts and the high prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the area, in 2006 the Reach Out to Humanity for Health organisation decided that a maternity ward with an HIV and AIDS counselling centre and dispensary was a necessity in the community and needed to be built. An update of the status of the Piave Maternity Ward and Counselling Centre was given in 2010, three years after the opening of the facility but no formal research conducted on its progress and perceived underuse.
Therefore purpose of this investigation will be to evaluate the reasons for the underuse of the Piave Maternity Ward and Counselling Centre. In addition to evaluating the underuse of the facility by the surrounding community, the study will also investigate how the view of traditional medicine, more specifically traditional birth attendants, has been impacted.
This study aims to aid the Piave Maternity Ward and Counselling Centre to align their objectives and services more accurately with the surrounding community’s health priorities.
The study will also investigate how traditional birth attendants’ “business” has been impacted as well as attempt to assess if combining their traditional medical culture with the Western biomedical culture would be possible to be able to reach out to as many people in the community as possible. If the combining of the two medical cultures is in fact possible and both sets of health workers could respectfully work together, the number of human resources for health in that community would increase substantially.
The study is qualitative in nature and will interview women who use the maternity ward and counselling centre, key informants including Ministry of Health staff, health care facility workers, community leaders and traditional birth attendants. NVivo9 will be used to draw themes from the interviews after translating and back translating the interviews. The results will be disseminated by compiling the data into a report for the health workers to analyse and use to help improve their facility.
Keywords: traditional birth attendants, biomedicine, maternal health
Word count: 10067