Relational coordination of state partnership with traditional birth attendants: soft partnering in Ghana's maternal and child healthcare context

Gordon Dugle, Simon Bishop and Judy Muthuri

Social Science & Medicine, 2025, vol. 380, issue C

Abstract: To address maternal and child mortality in resource-constrained settings, policies increasingly emphasise partnerships between state providers and traditional birth attendants (TBAs). Historically, relationships between TBAs and biomedical providers have been characterised by tension and competing knowledge paradigms. This study examines how these tensions can be ameliorated to deliver maternal and child healthcare (MCH). To do so we present a ‘positive deviant case’ of state-TBA partnership in the Upper East Region of Ghana as a noteworthy sub-national case with better MCH outcomes compared to other regions in the country.

Keywords: State-TBA partnership; Soft partnering; Traditional birth attendants; Maternal and child healthcare; Relational coordination; Ghana (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118238

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