Research Article Recognise and Acknowledge Us: Views of Traditional Birth Attendants on Collaboration with Midwives for Maternal Health Care Services Maurine Rofhiwa Musie , Mavis Fhumulani Mulaudzi , Rafiat Anokwuru , and Varshika Bhana-Pema Department of Nursing Sciences, Faculty of Health Care Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0001, South Africa Correspondence should be addressed to Maurine Rofhiwa Musie; maurine.musie@up.ac.za Received 14 December 2021; Accepted 14 June 2022; Published 13 July 2022 Academic Editor: Shoulong Deng Copyright © 2022 Maurine Rofhiwa Musie et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Traditional birth attendants have since ancient time provided care to pregnant women. As such, the collaboration between midwives and traditional birth attendant (TBAs) can be an essential effort towards the reduction of the maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity rate especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper argues that the collaboration between traditional and formal health systems expands the reach and improves outcomes of community health care. The study is aimed at exploring the traditional birth attendant’s views on collaboration with midwives for maternal health care services at selected rural communities in South Africa (SA). Methods. The study was conducted in two rural communities in Tshwane and Johannesburg metropolitan districts from 15 June to 31 October 2021. The study followed the qualitative explorative and descriptive research design. The sampling technique was nonprobability purposive, and snowballing technique was also used to sample the key informants who are the traditional birth attendants also known as traditional healers and who provide maternal health care services in the respective communities. The access to these participants was through the gatekeepers, the Traditional Health Organisation Council (THO) council. Data collection was through semistructured in-depth interviews. Data were analysed thematically through the eight steps of Tesch. Results. Five main themes were identified which included the recognition of traditional birth attendants as enablers of collaboration, the envisaged value of the collaboration, processes required to foster collaboration, repositioning for new roles, and barriers to collaboration. Conclusion. The TBAs are ready to collaborate with the formal health care system, and all they require is for their services to maternal health care to be recognised and acknowledged. 1. Background The existence of humankind is attributed to the services of traditional birth attendants (TBAs). With that said, TBAs have a long history as childbirth attendants globally and in many communities in developing countries including South Africa [1]. Traditional birth attendants have played a pivotal role in maternal health care, long before the formalisation and the recognition of midwifery as a distinct area of prac- tice [2]. A TBA is a person who assists the mother through- out the stages of pregnancy and facilitates the childbirth processes. Furthermore, the “TBAs initially acquire their skills by delivering babies themselves or through apprentice- ship or from other traditional birth attendants, and they are also referred to as traditional midwives, lay midwives, or comadrona in Southeast Asia” (WHO 1992) [3]. With that said, globally and in African countries, in particular, the World Health Organization [4] has recommended collaborations between health care professionals and traditional TBAs to improve women’s access to maternal health care. However, that is not the reality in South Africa; currently, the TBAs are not recognised in the formal health care system. Hindawi International Journal of Reproductive Medicine Volume 2022, Article ID 9216500, 10 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/9216500