Traditional birth attendants in India lack basic HIV information

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Traditional birth attendants in rural India lack basic information about

HIV/AIDS and safe delivery practices, according to a study conducted in 144

villages in the Indian state of Karnataka.

Only 12 percent of traditional birth attendants in the study reported awareness

of HIV/AIDS, a surprising finding given that the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India is

more than two decades old. Of those who had heard about HIV/AIDS, only 72

percent correctly reported that the virus could be spread from mother to child;

74 percent identified unprotected sex as a mode of transmission; and 51 percent

correctly said healthy looking people could spread HIV. Just 44 percent knew

that infected mothers could lower the risk of transmitting the virus to their

infants.

The level of knowledge about safe birthing practices was also low among the

traditional birth attendants. Considering that obstetrical hemorrhage and sepsis

are still the leading cause of maternal death in India, researchers said it was

not surprising that only 13 percent of of the traditional birth attendants

referred mothers experiencing excessive bleeding following birth to a medical

center, and that only about half sterilized equipment prior to deliveries.

Other unsafe procedures still practiced among traditional birth attendants

included sucking secretions out of a baby's mouth and nose with their mouth,

applying cow dung, ghee (clarified butter) and other preparations on the

umbilical cord, and inducing vomiting by stuffing hair in a woman's throat to

stimulate contractions of the uterus to clear the placenta.

Even more concerning, traditional birth attendants appeared to have low levels

of awareness about when clients should be referred to a hospital. Less than five

percent said they would refer a mother to a medical center if the umbilical cord

was wrapped around the baby's head, and just over half (57 percent) would refer

the mother if the baby was coming out the wrong way. Most but not all (70

percent) would refer the woman if the baby was stuck inside the birth canal.

Source:

" Traditional birth attendants lack basic information on HIV and safe delivery

practices in rural Mysore, India "

BMC Public Health 2010; 10: 570 (open access)

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/10/570

Purnima Madhivanan1 , Bhavana N Kumar1 , on2 and Karl Krupp1

1 Public Health Research Institute of India, 89/B, 2nd Cross, 2nd Main,

Yadavgiri, Mysore, 570020, India

2 San Francisco Department of Public Health, 1360 Mission Street, Suite 401,

San Francisco, CA 94103, USA

BMC Public Health 2010, 10:570doi:10.1186/1471-2458-10-570

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found

online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/10/570

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Ramos

Health Communication Specialist

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Access to Health Information blog: http://access2healthinfo.wordpress.com

A blog highlighting the latest open-access research focused on the prevention of

non-communicable and infectious diseases.