The Ogun state Government in southwest Nigeria says it has trained 2,000 Traditional Birth Attendants on pregnancy complications during child birth.
The state’s Commissioner for Health, Babatunde Ipaye, who made this known in Abeokuta, the state capital, said the training became necessary in other to reduce morbidity and mortality rate of mother and child during child bearing.
Ipaye said that the trainings was carried out in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNFPA, adding that part of the pregnancy complications needed to watch out for are, prolonged labour, bleeding during pregnancy, bridge positioning of the child among others.
The Commissioner said that in cases where the complications mentioned persist in any pregnancy, the TBA handling such issues have also been trained to quickly refer to the nearest General Hospital close to them.
“Because some of our people particularly the rural dwellers believe and have trust in TBA’s, we took it upon ourselves to engage them in training on complications during and after pregnancy in both the child and mother.
“They should quickly refer the patient to the nearest general hospitals if the complications mentioned above persist in any of their patients,” Ipaye said.
The Commissioner also said ever since the training commenced, the state has recorded great reduction in mother and child death during pregnancy.
He added that the training would be held across the 20 local governments as well as the 37 Local Government Development Council Area (LCDA) of the state.
