Hauwa Saliu, a traditional birth attendant listens to fetal heart sounds under the supervision of Faustina Ajayi, a nurse-midwife in Nigeria in 2014. Few women in the Niger state have access to obstetricians or other trained health care workers. Many live in rugged localities and villages far from health facilities. For rural families with limited resources, traditional birth attendants (TBAs) have played a vital role in helping women deliver their babies. Yet TBAs traditionally receive no formal training or knowledge of safe labor and delivery practices, and have little to no understanding of mother-to-child HIV transmission.

First published in the June 24, 2019, 8:55 p.m. edition

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