Children in school © Sohrab Baghri

Fusing local traditions with modern practices

Tettenyumu's story describes how supporting traditional birth attendants is helping to make a difference to the lives of women in Ghana. 

The daughter of a farming couple with five brothers and sisters, Tettenyumu grew up in the Eastern Region of Ghana watching her mother and other relatives helping neighbours to safely deliver their children. Whenever the services of her mother were called upon, Tettenyumu followed her and sometimes assisted her.

A wife and then a widow

When Tettenyumu got married and moved to another village to start her own family, her husband did not encourage her interest in becoming a Traditional Birth Attendant. He was against his wife working outside the home and, with the birth of the first of their three children, she only had time to help her husband in the fields.

When her husband died a few years later Tettenyumu, overwhelmed by financial difficulties, returned home to her parents and decided to follow in her mother's footsteps by becoming a Traditional Birth Attendant and helping other mothers to deliver their babies.

Now she saves lives

Statistically, 2.5 out of 1,000 women die while giving birth or following complications after childbirth in Ghana. The figure is higher in some rural areas where health education is poor and the facilities inadequate.

Fusing local traditions with modern practices to improve the chances of life for children and their mothers is practically Tettenyumu's job description. At 40, she has been working as a Traditional Birth Attendant for over ten years and throughout her career she has delivered enough children to populate an entire village.