…Donate health items to facilities
By: Danjuma Attah, Gombe
The National Coordinator and Country Director of Rotary Reproductive and Maternal Child Health Programme, Professor Emmanuel Dolapolu Fadeju, has appealed to traditional birth attendants in Gombe State to take deliveries to PHC’s following improvement in the facilities.
Professor Emmanuel Dolapolu stated this at the Primary Health Care Centre Madaki quarters, Gombe, where Rotary International undertook a community sensitisation programme aimed at reducing maternal and infant mortality during pregnancy and childbirth.
Professor Emmanuel later told newsmen in an interview that the reason for the appeal was because Gombe State Government, through the Ministry of Health, had made the Primary Health Care Centres in the State very functional, improved the system and made it affordable and accessible to all persons.
According to him, “I appealed to traditional birth attendants to take their patients to health facilities for delivery. Don’t take deliveries at home.
“We know you’re good and experienced but refer them to the facilities. You are not hospitals and can’t compare yourselves with the hospitals.
“They have all that is needed in case the delivery becomes complicated. Gombe State Ministry of Health, one of our partners, has one of the best systems. They’re proactive and responsive.
“We attest to the number of health workers and personnel in their facilities”, he stated.
He also explained that the programme which is being carried out in all PHC’s of two Local Government Areas in the State, is a method of community sensitisation particularly for women of childbearing age, heads of households, young women, community elders, village chiefs, and religious leaders about the need for reducing maternal and infant mortality results from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
“This is an information venue where they will get what they can do about spacing children, delivery in facilities, having good nutrition, using contraceptives to space birth and making sure they access antenatal and postnatal services.
“This is a way of making sure no deaths are recorded either of pregnant mothers or infants. We and other partners are just supporting to make sure we put in our own to make the system more efficient in reducing maternal and infant deaths’, he said.
The Rotary team later donated medical items to the State Government through the State Ministry of Health.
