ABSTRACT
In the Philippines, of the 1 704 966 recorded deliveries in the year 2000, 40.7% were attended by midwives, 26.8% by doctors and 26.6% by trained traditional birth attendants. The remainder were attended by nurses and untrained traditional birth attendants (Table 8.1)1. These circumstances contribute heavily to the inability of government offices to develop population-based natality figures which include an accurate assessment of the number of multiple births. Years back, even more births were attended by traditional birth attendants rather than by trained health-care providers. Slowly, in the past decade, however, the role of these traditional birth attendants has been marginalized. This reduction, mainly in the rural areas, may be partially attributed to a more aggressive health-education campaign with better training of health attendants, midwives and doctors, especially at the primary health-care levels.
