Study of vertical delivery practiced by traditional midwives and identification of protective and risk factors. Canton Cuenca.

This project aims to determine the protective factors and risk factors due to vertical delivery practiced by traditional midwives, factors that could be influenced by socio -economic and cultural variables, which could influence the health or death of the mother and child. The study will have double entry, from conventional medicine and another from medical anthropology. The study of vertical delivery practiced by traditional midwives will be carried out in the parishes of: El Valle, Santa Ana, Quingo and Zhidmad. Once the protective and risk factors have been identified, the former will be enhanced by the application of new principles of biosafety and infections prevention, and the reference establishment and counter -reference with health personnel and services, while by these strengthening activities, the risks will be attenuated. To achieve this purpose, a census of all traditional midwives of the study area will be made, activities to which health personnel will be integrated. At the end of the study, there will be a human group made up of traditional midwives who attend home births on the basis of their tacit knowledge and those acquired in the training process that will be implemented for this purpose. In addition, traditional midwives will be able to improve their attention in childbirth and report to the respective health area when cases are complicated, so it is expected that in this way it will also contribute to reduce maternal and child mortality in the rural environment; Finally, there is expected a relationship of complementarity between scientific practices and traditional practices, for childbirth care.

VIII RESEARCH PROJECT COMPETITION AND III RESEARCH PROGRAM COMPETITION