Giving birth in a context of precarious maternal health care provision: when traditional birth attendants reinvest in the therapeutic market of the Far North of Cameroon

Giving birth remains a major challenge in the far north of Cameroon. In this region, which nevertheless has the most important synthetic fertility index of the country (6.8 children per woman), women continue to risk death by giving life. The reason, the far north remains the poor parent of the offer of obstetrical health care in Cameroon. Less than five (05) specialists cover the needs of obstetrical health populations throughout the region and, in some communities, women are forced to travel more than ten kilometers in motorcycles, donkeys or men to access These care, the outcome of which ensures, in their different cultures, a certain existence. In response to this precarious supply of obstetric care, traditional birth attendants have reinvested the care market in large numbers. These care givers, whose existence on the African and Cameroonian therapeutic market in particular is as old as the world, downright delight the star to modern therapists nowadays. Without formal training, they mainly use therapies inspired by ancestral knowledge or ethnomethods to provide their clients with childbirth in decency and strict intimacy.