PIP: Traditional midwives are active in most villages and many urban areas of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. They deliver babies, provide prenatal and postpartum care, teach folk methods of birth control, treat infertility, and enjoy the confidence of many women. Most official family planning programs make little or no use of these traditional midwives. Research should be conducted into the most effective ways of recruiting and rewarding midwives in family planning programs. They seem to function best when provided with adequate training, supervision, and incentives. Traditional midwives are participating in the national family planning programs in Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Only in Iran do they participate in the medical aspects of family planning. Midwives in Iran do IUD insertions and their performance compares favorably with that of medical personnel.
PIP: In Thailand "granny" midwives are being tested and trained to take part in modern family planning and public health programs. In Malaysia a survey of conditions relating to an increase in induced early termination or abortion of pregnancies is in progress. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) supports these projects as well as others in Asia. Local paramedical workers, like the "barefoot doctors" in China, are being trained. In Thailand a growth plan is attempting to reduce the annual rate of population increase from about 3.3% to 2.5%. Many granny midwives have been contacted. Several methods of incentive and training are being tried and will be evaluated. Eventually granny midwives in all of Thailand's 60,000 villages will be enlisted in the national planning program. Of Thailand's 6 million married women of reproductive age less than half use modern birth control methods. Abortion is illegal in Thailand which is a predominantly Buddhist country. The project in Malaysia is being carried out by the University of Malaysia and the Federation of Family Planning Associations. Abortion is also illegal in Islamic Malaysia, although there are illegal abortion clinics. Trends so far reported to IDRC indicate that 1) lower class women are more cooperative interviewees than others, 2) most couples use some method of birth control, 3) many wish to interrupt their pregnancies, 4) poorer families have more children than wealthier ones, 5) the Chinese and Indian people show a greater tendency to limit families than do the Malays, and 6) most couples want 3 or 4 children.