The Roles and Challenges of Traditional Health Practitioners in Maternal Health Services in Rural Communities of Mthatha, South Africa

Abstract

Traditional health practitioners (THPs) are considered as the entry level of care in African societies and play an important role in the delivery of health services to the population. A phenomenological qualitative study was carried out among purposefully selected THPs in Mthatha to understand their roles and the challenges they face in providing maternal health services. The study included a focus group discussion with seven participants which yielded three themes and seven subthemes. The content analysis of descriptive data from the focus group discussion revealed threats posed by unregistered and counterfeit THPs to the lives of pregnant women in rural settings. The THPs’ wide range of services allowed pregnant women to receive prenatal, antenatal, and postnatal care in proximity. However, this community level of care was marked by high levels of secrecy and counterfeit practitioners who used human body parts, which compromised the practice and rendered it unpopular. The South African government recommended the establishment of a register for THPs in order to protect the public, including the clarification of functional referral pathways between THPs and conventional health services.

A South African Perspective on the Microbiological and Chemical Quality of Meat: Plausible Public Health Implications

“…Poverty, cultural, and social factors also influence the people's consideration of self-medications against common infections, the purchase of medications over the counter or from unregulated drug dispensaries, visits to traditional practitioners, or even the borrowing of medicines from their neighbours [214]. Most of the South African population has embraced traditional health practitioners as a vital group in their health care [218]; however, this practice tends to vary across the provinces. According to Porkharel et al [214], the traditional healers provide patients with medications prepared from unknown chemical agents mixed with suboptimal concentrations of conventional antibiotics, which equally provoke antimicrobial resistance.…”