Ondo moves to curb maternal mortality, trains birth attendants

No fewer than 80 birth attendants have been trained by the Ondo State Government on partographs towards preventing maternal morbidity and mortality in the state.

According to the Head of Department, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH), Dr. Oladiran Ayodeji, the training became imperative to boost the efficiency of the birth attendants in child delivery within the state health sector.

Speaking at Bolorunduro, headquarters of Ondo East Local Government, Ayodeji disclosed that the workshop was organised by the Ondo State Primary Health Care Development Agency (OSPHCDA) for the health practitioners of the Ondo East Primary Health Care Authority, Maternal, and Child Health Department.

The medical practitioner stated that the most common causes of maternal mortality were hypertensive disorders of pregnancy at 42.9 percent and sepsis at 42.9 percent, while Postpartum Haemorrhage (PPH) was responsible for 14.2 percent of maternal deaths.

He said: “These actions are more likely to halt the progression of near-miss maternal mortality. The healthcare-seeking behaviour of women in the community must be improved through advocacy, and the enlistment of community leaders must be assured through periodic outreach interactions with different strata of the community.

“The issue of maternal mortality is a worldwide problem, but most of it comes from Nigeria, and our country is now becoming an embarrassment to itself and the whole world. It is not that we cannot take care of or solve this problem.

“We cannot continue to stay in the teaching hospitals, hoping and thinking that the problem of death that will be seen in the teaching hospitals will just go away. Patients that die come from our community, and that is why we are engaging our health workers from the grassroots now.”

On her part, the Head of Local Government Administration, Ondo East, Mrs. Busola Adufe, said the training will further enhance the capabilities of the participants.

In his address, the Primary Health Care Coordinator and Medical Officer of Health for Ondo East Local Council, Dr. Babatunde Akinbinu, said, “The essence of this training is to lecture our health workers on how to prevent this maternal morbidity and mortality in the health

“We found that we need to train and retrain staff on some of these lifesaving skills, and we are excited with the cooperation we got from the department of obstetrics and gynaecology, the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH), the Ondo State Primary Health Care Development Agency, and the staff here in the Ondo East Local Government Area.

“We expect that there will be an improvement in our health sector on maternal morbidity and mortality because we have trained our staff.”