ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the main features of Ethiopian traditional medicine and its implications for health care. Traditional medicine was recognized by the Ministry of Health as an important alternative health resource, readily available to both urban and rural communities. Ethnomedical beliefs and practices continue to be widely followed throughout urban and rural Ethiopia, reflecting considerable cultural continuity and the persistently poor accessibility and quality of most modern health services. Ethiopian ethnomedicine can be described as an integrated system of beliefs and practices, characterized by an internally coherent discourse on health and illness. The desirable state of well-being is disrupted by the onset of sickness. Diseases are classified according to group-specific nosological criteria and attributed to a host of causational factors. The great majority of Ethiopian women deliver at home and follow traditional birth customs. In this context, traditional birth attendants play an important role in prenatal and perinatal care.
