It is estimated that one in every three hundred expectant women in Kenya dies from birth or pregnancy
related causes. This crisis is largely attributed to the birth seeking services Kenyan women opt for among
other factors. The implementation of free maternity services by the government since 2013 has not
realized its ultimate goal since a number of mothers still prefer the services of Traditional Birth Attendants
(TBAs). In Bunyala Sub-County of Busia, many deliveries still occur at home and without the assistance
of trained/skilled birth attendants. This is in spite of fact that the World Health Organization and Kenyan
Government outlawed the use of the TBAs on the assumption that they were partly to blame for high
mortalities and morbidities of mothers and new born babies. This study sought to unveil the reasons behind
the choice of birth attendance by expectant women in Bunyala Sub-County using descriptive cross-sectional
survey design. The study established that a number of negative pregnancy outcomes were associated with the
services of TBAs. 14% of the mothers sampled had suffered miscarriages,13% of whom through the
hands of TBAs; 6% had lost their newborn, 5.2% in the hands of TBAs. It was also revealed that sampled
mothers had endured maternal deaths during childbirth as a result of hemorrhage, sepsis, pre- eclampsia, eclampsia, and obstructed labour. 84% of the mothers preferred on government facilities as
their ideal antenatal care provider, citing availability of skilled staff, medicines and equipment. However, some mothers preferred services of TBAs due to their flexibility in terms of payments, accessibility at odd
hours, and good relations (some are relatives). Others 21% for cultural reasons refrained from being
attended to by male birth attendants in government health facilities, while others shy away for fear of the
mandatory HIV testing done under the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) program. From these findings, this study proposes new thinking into these factors that are deemed inhibitive to use
of government health facilities for birth attendance among mothers in the rural areas.