Expectant Mothers to Hospital, Get N500 : FG tells Birth Attendants
The primary Health care system Development Agency, an agency of the Federal Government, says it will pay N500 to any traditional birth attendant who takes an expectant mother to an orthodox health centre or labour room!
Its Director, Dr. Abdullah Mohammed, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday that the incentive would hopefully contribute to a reduction in maternal mortality which had become worrisome.
"We have facilities that record 500 antenatal attendants in a month, but these same facilities may not register more than 50 births in a month; so the question is: Where are these other people delivered?
"We ve seen that many of them deliver at home.
"For any of them that brings a woman to delivery room, we pay them between N200 and N500; we can't start too high because we look at something that is sustainable"
Mohammed noted that the use of the traditional birth attendants called volunteers, had not been part of the formal health system in the past.
According to him, the traditional birth attendants play very important role in the northern part of the country, including Lagos and Ogun states.
Mohammed noted that for any country desirous of reducting maternal mortality, it must have skilled birth attendants as midwives. He said that the unfortunate situation in Nigeria was that midwives could not be available everywhere, "nothing" even where they are, some women still preper the traditional birth attendants".
The Director said the agency would make it clear to the traditional birth attendants not to take deliveries, but that they would be equiped with basic knowledge. "So the focus on TBAs will be in terms of promotion what we call "Key household practices"exclusive breastfeeding, family planning, attendance of antenatal clinic, ensuring that deliveries are carried out at the facility level.
"Bur beyond this we want to give them incentives for bringing a pregnant woman to the facility to deliver because this is happening in Rwanda and it is making a lot of impac in the health system". Mohammed said another issue the agency would tackle was the reluctance of some expectant mothers to attend orthodox health centres.
He said the agency would learn from a country like Indonisia where expectant mothers were allowed to be delivered at home but would have, at least a midwife in attendance. "We are not just looking at facility-based delivery alone: we are also looking at assisted home delivery. "We want the country to grow so that we move clearly to a level where we have close to 80% to 100% skilled birth attendance, which is still very low now; it is still below 40%. "If we must transit to a country with low maternal mortality, we have to work hard on that"
This serious indeed, N200 -N500? wonderful
Culled from PM News, Monday, 30 July, 2012 (page 4)
4 comments:
SERIOUSLY?????? N200-500????
Is this a joke or what???..the worth of human life is on N200-500??? The cost of transporting the woman in labour to the hospital is more than that! A taxi will take not less than 1k depending on the area!
THIS IS AN INSULT!
Instead, they should, rather entice the pregnant women to hospitals by offering FREE delivery.
And there should be awareness and, education instead! OR the trado should affiliate with government hospitals, and work hand in hand, because of the stubborn attitude of die hard trado-mental-thinking women and men.
Nevertheless, i think MONEY plays the major role in every thing...and as for that floxy issue, i don't trust Akin and the mother moves...why the ring?......who knows if they are responsible sef!..mschewww.
N500?????....let them make it 5k and see if the hospitals will not be full!
Hey! don't forget churches also...i don't support women that give birth in the church!...A WOMAN DIED THERE DURING DELIVERY! This is different from churches that have clinics with trained medical personnel.
You know something, i am so angry, at the senseless deaths of mothers!
I got the bad news yesterday, of a young lady i know who died, it was pregnancy related.
In Nigeria, we need MORE prayers to come out of the labour room safely. #urghhhhh#
This will help but not that much. Like SM, I think the amount is too small jare.
@Myne, I completely agree with you, the amount is indeed very small and is not encouraging enough to effect the kind of result the government would want to achieve ( that is if they are serious and want to achieve much)
@Simply Mee,the 9 months a woman goes through before delivery is no joke and facing the challenge of labour, coming out safely with one's child, hale and hearty is enough for prayers to be said from the very first month to the ninth.
I know there are a lot of people in government that know what the masses are going through as regards health care and coming out like this , making a joke out of a very issue like this, is shocking. What is N200? or N500? The shortest distance in Abuja for a cab is N400 not to mention Lagos?
You will be alarmed to know that these so called Directors in government departments take their wives and families abroad where they are taken care of by the very best doctors and often freebies that follows like citizenships!
The poor in our societies are offered these kind of bonus for the worth of a life? N200 - N500? What will that do? Will the trado home attendants not rather collect more from the hubby of the woman or her family instead of "stressing" herself to go to the government hospitals at odd hours of the night ( depending of the time the woman in labour is brought in)?
I am trying to figure out what the Director was thinking when this was said, comparing Nigeria to other African country that this was implemented.
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