Attitude and Beliefs of Traditional Birth Attendants to Prematurely Erupted Teeth of Infants in Urban Local Government Areas in Ibadan, Nigeria

• Published in: International quarterly of community health education Vol. 32; no. 4; pp. 355 - 366
• Main Authors: Bankole, Olubunmi, Taiwo, Juliana, Nasiru, Olukemi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.10.2012; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Assistants; Attitudes; Birth; Childbirth & labor; Children; Cross-Sectional Studies; Culture; Enumeration; Evil; Extraction; Female; Good & evil; Health education; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Infants; Intellectual disabilities; Interviews as Topic; Knowledge; Local Government; Male; Middle Aged; Midwifery; Neonates; Nigeria; Nigeria - epidemiology; Sacrifices; Spirits; Taboos; Teeth; Tooth Abnormalities - ethnology; Tooth Eruption; Traditional birth attendants; Urban Areas; Urban Population; Nigeria
• ISSN: 0272-684X; 2752-535X; 1541-3519; 2752-5368
• DOI: 10.2190/IQ.32.4.g

Traditional birth attendants (TBAs) can be invaluable in assisting to dispel myths commonly associated with natal/neonatal teeth. To ensure correct delivery of the message, baseline data of their beliefs is important. To assess the attitude and beliefs of some Nigerian TBAs to prematurely erupted teeth in infants, a total enumeration of the TBAs in the five urban Local Government Areas in Ibadan was conducted and 163 consenting TBAs were recruited using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. The attitude of the TBAs was that of fear and shock (35.6%) while 30 (18.4%) will consider the child weird. Perceived causes of the variation include evil spirits (31.9%), contravening cultural taboos (9.2%), and prolonged gestation (4.9%). Beliefs on the effect of natal/neonatal teeth on the child include strange behavior (31.3%), child developing evil spiritual powers (41.1%), and mental retardation (3.1%). Practices included advising parents to get rid of/or hide the child (4.9%) and immediate extraction of the teeth with/without sacrifices (35.6%). There is an urgent need to address knowledge gaps by giving health education to TBAs.