Perinatal care: the Kuranko context of choice

The ethnomedical aspects of childbirth and factors that influence Kuranko women in the northern Sierra Leone center of Kabala (a multiethnic town of some 15,000 inhabitants) in making decisions regarding perinatal care are the focus of this article. I found that Kuranko women develop perinatal care strategies from services available in the formal and informal health-care sectors. The discussion is situated within a context that values primary health care and health promotion and advocates the use of these frameworks in ways that are informed by Kuranko social organization and concepts of development.