UNICEF supports Anambra’s campaign against quack midwives

UNITED Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is partnering with Anambra State Government in the quest to discourage ndi Anambra from patronising quacks midwives and traditional birth.
This follows finding by UNICEF in 2014 which showed high maternal and infant mortality in Anaocha Local Government Area, Anambra State Government, which was traced to a shortfall in proper hygiene and health care, for which UNICEF has begun the second phase of meetings with community actors that led to engagement and mobilisation of volunteers for services in over 11 council areas.
A State Health Educator, Okoli Scholastica, said that 10 out of 100 women die during pregnancy and child delivery while speaking at Ogidi during a sensitisation meeting with community stakeholders in Ogidi, Idemili-North council area.
She lamented that rural dwellers resort to traditional birth attendants who lack proper knowledge of health care and hygiene, saying that these attendants often endanger the lives of both mother and child, outlining hazards associated with patronising traditional birth attendants to include injury to the child while being pushed, outright stillbirths due to lack of antenatal checkups, among other risks.
Earlier in her address, the team leader and UNICEF facilitator, George Ileka, advised the community leaders to ensure their people visit the primary healthcare centres in their communities, disclosing that community volunteers would be mobilised for prevention of mother to child transmission, as well as maternal and newborn child health are Anambra East, Dunukofia, Aguata, Idemili North, Onitsha North and South, Awka North and South, Njikoka, Nnewi and Orumba South in the second phase of the programme.