Abstract

Despite medical improvements, hundreds of thousands of women and millions of newborns die each year from childbirth-related complications. The United Nations has set goals to reduce the number of these deaths by the year 2030. The chances of survival go up when skilled medical helpers are there to assist with pregnancy and childbirth care, but what does it mean to be “skilled”? We decided to review the scientific literature to see if there was a clear definition of a skilled birth attendant (SBA) in low-and-middle-income countries. We discovered that there are a lot of differences between and within countries on the definition of skilled birth attendants, including requirements for education and training and the tasks they are qualified or able to perform.