The healthcare preferences of pregnant women for traditional birth home and hospitals in Calabar, Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose – to understand the awareness and healthcare preferences of pregnant women in Calabar municipal for traditional birth homes and hospitals.Materials and methods. The research is a qualitative phenomenology research, based on interpretative phenomenology, involving focus group discussion that explored the views of the traditional birth attendants on the reason for their patients' preferences as well as indebt interviews that explored the pregnant women patronizing traditional birth homes preferences. Focus group discussion consisted of four major steps and included research design, data collection analysis and reporting of results.We used purposive sampling by taking from the list of registered midwives or traditional birth attendants (TBAs) of cross-river state Association, Calabar municipality chapter. The number of participants were 15 TBAs.Results. Results showed that there is diversity when considering the individual's values. The TBAs in their focused group discussion attempted to emphasize on the importance of patience. Though they all consider that without patience, one cannot be a TBA and it is the secret of their patients' attraction.Conclusions. There is no one «standalone» reason for the use of traditional birth attendant homes instead of the government hospital, but there is a mix of the reasons with some outstanding factors that influences Calabar pregnant women choice on the use of traditional birth homes instead of government hospitals.