By Suleiman Anyalewechi
Despite all the incentives through the provision of healthcare facilities by the Government, over 70 percent of Kano women still prefer to give birth at home.
This is just as the nonchalant attitude of some healthcare workers has been adduced as one of the factors for the high rate of home deliveries .
At a one day talk shop on the advancement of women health in Kano State held on Friday November 15, 2024, in the ancient city, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr Abubakar Labaran Yusuf, noted that findings have shown that over 70% of women in the State also avoid ante natal services.
The situation, he lamented, has resulted in many of the women being exposed to many avoidable risks, including deaths before, during, and after child birth.
Part of the problems associated with giving birth at home, Dr Yusuf stated, is excessive bleeding which, in most cases, lead to avoidable death .
Similarly, he noted that the practice of avoiding antenatal and giving birth at home have worsened cases of mother to child transmission of diseases such as the HIV.
Dr Yusuf expressed regret that despite the State Government’s huge investments in the healthcare sector, many women still prefer to give birth at home.
“This administration revived the free maternal and child health programmes to address these avoidable deaths, but only 30 percent of the women attend the free ante natal services.
“You only see them during complicated labour”, the Kano Health Commissioner lamented.
This negative attitude he maintained, has tended to place the lives of both mother and child at great risks both during, and after births.
Dr Yusuf noted that avoiding prenatal planning has been one of the major reasons for complications during birth, as well as the transmission of communicable diseases from mother to child.
According to him, rural women are more prone to the habit of avoiding antenatal services, a development which he blamed on the availability of limited access to healthcare facilities, as well as ignorance.
He blamed the high mortality rate in Kano and other Northern States on the twin problems of ignorance and the deliberate shunning of healthcare services by the majority of the women
Further speaking at the work shop put together by the Centre for Communication and Social Impact, CCSI, and Pathfinder International as part of the activities to create awareness and strengthen multi-level partnership in advancing women’s health in Kano, Dr Yusuf expressed concern over how unscrupulous workers connive with beneficiaries to steal free drugs.
He noted that more often than not, free drugs meant for patients have found their ways into the market through the activities of some saboteurs.
This ugly development, he insisted has combined to undermine Government’s efforts at improving healthcare delivery system in the State .
“A lot of people, both workers and the beneficiaries of the programme (free drugs in Kano) connive to steal the drugs which is a sort of depriving persons who really need the drugs from getting the services.
“This is one of the problems we are facing and we have succeeded greatly, but still there are some pockets of thefts in facilities.
However, despite the observed constraints, the Commissioner for Health stated that the Kano State Government has continued to take steps towards improving health facilities across the State.
This he noted, is in addition to the engagement of more health workers in the last one year for the purposes of reaching out to more people, especially the rural dwellers.
