Some heads of public health facilities in Kebbi, say the services being provided by Skilled Birth Attendants (SBAs) is encouraging pregnant women to deliver their babies in health facilities in the state.

The SBAs are being supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and European Union(EU).

The facility heads made this known on Wednesday, during a visit by officials of the UNICEF and media organisations to assess the impact of SBAs in the facilities.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that UNICEF and EU had supported Kebbi with 106 health workers, comprising 45 Midwives and 61 Senior Community Health Extension Workers (SCHEW).

The support, under the UNICEF and EU Maternal, Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN) project, was to address manpower gaps across 27 primary healthcare facilities in four Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.

The LGAs are Argungu, Birnin Kebbi, Jega and Fakai.

Mr Abubakar Saidu, Officer-In-Charge, Primary Health Centre, Kimba, Jega LGA, said that the support had increased delivery in the facility from zero to between 10 and 20 monthly.

“Before the intervention, we had no female midwife in the facility, a development that sent away pregnant mothers from delivery in the centre.

“This is because in this part of the country, most pregnant women do not allow men to examine them or help them deliver their babies.

“They prefer to deliver at home if there is no trained woman to attend to them, but the situation changed when UNICEF and EU supported us with a female midwife and a SCHEW,” he said.

Saidu said that the health workers on resumption carry out community mobilisation and house-to-house sensitisation to inform women of their presence and the need to deliver in the facility.

According to him, the development has increased uptake of health services by women and children in the facility from 50 to 60 people in a month to between 400 and 600 a month.

However, a midwife, Ms Juan Victor, who said she and her colleague were supposed to provide 24-hour services could not do so due to the problem of accommodation.

Similarly, Mr Aliyu Usman, the Facility Head of Gindi Kermi PHC, also said that the presence of skilled workers in the facility had increased uptake of health services in the facility.

According to him, many women were hitherto not accessing services at the centre except during outreach programmes, emphasising, but that the situation had changed since the deployment of skilled workers to the facility.

Usman also said that the UNICEF and EU MNCHC project has strengthened the effectiveness of Ward Development Committees (WDC), Traditional Birth Attendants and Volunteer Community Mobilisers.

He said that the groups had been assisting significantly in demand creation and referring pregnant mothers to attend antenatal care, deliver in health facility and immunise their children.

He particularly said that the WDC had assisted in renovating the ceiling, the labour room and other parts of the facility, including connecting the centre with electricity.

The Chairman of the WCD, Malam Samaila Yahaya, said that the committee mobilised resources through levies and drug revolving fund to address some needs in health centres and schools.

The Child Survival and Development Consultant of the project, Dr Obinna Orjingene, said that the presence of skilled workers had increased utilisation of SBA significantly in the supported health facilities.

Orjingene also said that delivery in health facility, antenatal and postnatal care attendance had equally increased, thereby, significantly improving the health indices of women and children in the state.

 

(NAN)