African birth: Psycho-social obstetric practices in cultural transition between Africa and the West

Abstract

The Southern African experience of pregnancy and childbirth as it occurs in traditional home birth settings as well as in Western clinics and hospitals has been explored in this paper. How traditional customs have altered following contact with Western health care systems have been discussed. The possibility of a meeting ground between Africa and the West, at least with regard to one aspect of medicine, childbirth, has been proposed and examined by means of a needs hierarchy model of behaviour.