Traditional midwives (sometimes called TBAs) face particular
problems. Many professional health workers, including
professional midwives, see traditional midwives as incompetent or
old-fashioned. These traditional midwives may be very
knowledgeable about birth and skilled with plant medicines,
gentle massage techniques, or other safe, effective practices. As
more people leave their villages for cities, these midwives may be
some of the only people preserving the knowledge and customs of
their communities. Traditional midwives often work for little or no
pay, but instead because of a belief in the importance of their
work. Like other midwives, they do their work because they love
women and babies, because they want to contribute to their
communities, or because they are spiritually called to.
How A Book for Midwives can help
Midwives need accurate information to help them protect the
health and well-being of women, babies, and families. They need
strategies to fight poverty and the unequal treatment of women,
and for working together and with other health workers towards
health for all. We revised A Book for Midwives with these needs in
mind. In this edition of A Book for Midwives, you will find:
• information needed to care for women and their babies
during pregnancy, labor, birth, and in the weeks following
birth, because this is the primary work of most midwives.
• skills for protecting a woman’s reproductive health
throughout her life, because a woman’s health needs are
important whether or not she is having a baby, and because
a woman’s health when she is
not pregnant affects how healthy
and safe her pregnancies
and births will be.
A Book for Midwives (2010)