Traditional medicine and childcare in Western Africa: mothers' knowledge, folk illnesses, and patterns of healthcare-seeking behavior.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In spite of the strong role of traditional medicine in childcare in the pluralistic healthcare system in Western Africa, little information is known on mothers' domestic plant knowledge. Identifying local perspectives and treatments of children's illnesses, including folk illnesses, is essential to having a comprehensive understanding of how mothers make healthcare treatment decisions. We aimed to identify which infant illnesses Beninese and Gabonese mothers knew to treat with medicinal plants and for which illnesses they sought biomedical care or traditional healers.

Methods

We conducted 81 questionnaires with mothers in Bénin and Gabon and made 800 botanical specimens of cited medicinal plants. We calculated the number of species cited per illness and the propor

SUBMITTER: Towns AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4141852 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature