Teaching Guatemalan traditional birth attendants about obstetrical emergencies.

Introduction: Guatemala's Maternal Mortality Rate is 65th highest in the world at 120 deaths per 100,000 births. Contributing to the problem is traditional birth attendants (TBAs) attend most births yet lack knowledge about obstetrical emergencies. Government trainings in existence since 1955 have not changed TBA knowledge. Government trainings are culturally insensitive because they are taught in Spanish with written material, even though most TBAs are illiterate and speak Mayan dialects. The purpose of the observational study was to evaluate the effect of an oral training, that was designed to be culturally sensitive in TBAs' native language, on TBAs' knowledge of obstetrical emergencies.
Methods: one hundred ninety-one TBAs participated. The study employed a pretest-posttest design. A checklist was used to compare TBAs' knowledge of obstetrical emergencies before and after the training.
Findings: the mean pretest score was 5.006±SD 0.291 compared to the mean posttest score of 8.549±SD 0.201. Change in knowledge was a P value of 0.00.
Discussion: results suggest an oral training that was designed to be culturally sensitive in the native language improved TBAs' knowledge of obstetrical emergencies. Future trainings should follow a similar format to meet the needs of illiterate audiences in remote settings.
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