Traditional Birth Attendants practice the Basic Newborn Examination.

In the West, we take it for granted that when women are ready to give birth, they will be taken to the hospital and given state-of-the-art care by a team of well-trained doctors and nurses.  Even if a mother chooses to give birth at home, she is in the care of qualified, licensed midwives.  Should there be any complications, mother and child are transported to the nearest hospital and placed in the care of the aforementioned hospital medical staff.   Unfortunately, this is not always true in the rest of the world—especially in a place like Zambia.

Traditional Birth Attendants, or TBAs as they are more commonly known, are the key to the birthing system in rural Zambia.   Most Zambian mothers living in rural areas cannot afford transport to the modern hospitals and clinics in urban districts, so they rely on the expertise of TBAs to help them through the process of giving birth.

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