ASSESSMENT OF SOCIO-CULTURAL BELIEF DETERMENT OF THE UTILIZATION OF TRADITIONAL BIRTH ATTENDANTS SERVICES AMONG WOMEN OF CHILDBEARING AGE IN NORTH EAST ZONE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to assess the socio cultural determinant of the utilization of
traditional birth attendants' services among women of childbearing age in north east zone, Nigeria.
Multistage sampling procedures that involve more than one were used. This include: stratified,
simple random, proportionate, systematic and simple random sampling technique. Stratified to
divide the zone into thee strata, simple random to select three states and six LGAs and also simple
random sampling technique to select twelve 12 wards while proportionate sampling technique was
use to select 22% of women of childbearing age per each selected ward, systematic sampling
procedure were used to administered the instrument to the respondents at house to house while
simple random sampling technique was use in a house that has more than one respondent in the
house. The population comprised women of childbearing age in north east zone, Nigeria. Total
population of north east zone, Nigeria was 26, 249, 800, 22% of this figure was the total population
of women of childbearing age 5,774, 956 while the target population of this research was 1, 270,487
(NBS,2016; NGNADOP, 2018). The sample size was 800 women of childbearing age which were
drawn from the target population of 1,270, 487 women of childbearing age in north east zone
Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was used. Ex post facto means after the fact, design. In ex-
post facto, experimentation is not feasible, the researcher identifies extent that already occurs or
conditions that already were present and then collects data to investigate possible relationship
between factors and subsequent characteristics of behavior (Salkind, 2010). Researcher developed
four points Likert scale questionnaire was used in this research that contained section A- G. Data
was collected and analyses using SPSS vision 25.0 and result were presented in frequency count and
percentage, mean and standard deviation, one sample T test. Result revealed that, majority of the
respondents were within the age range of 24-32yrs (53.7%), followed by 15-23yrs (29.7%), 33-
42yrs (13.8%) and 43-49yrs (2.8%). also revealed that majority of the respondents were married
(92.8%), while 3.9% were widowed, 2.0% were divorcees while 1.3% were still single. Result
revealed that all the items had mean scores greater than the decision mean (2.50) which gave rise to
mean aggregate of 3.79. This shows that Socio-cultural beliefs determine the utilization of
traditional birth attendants' services among women of childbearing age in North East zone, Nigeria.
The result also revealed that the p-value (0.000) is less than 0.05 alpha level of significant, and the t-
Cal of 320.118 is greater than t-crit of 1.960. The hypothesis is therefore rejected. It was
recommended that, Government should integrate traditional birth attendants because their services
were culturally acceptable by the women of childbearing age in the North east zone, Nigeria, Symposium, lectures, seminars and training of Traditional Birth Attendants should be organized
from time to time to update their professional knowledge and meet modern health care technology.