That Crusade For TBA Legislation

On the 27th of July, 2011, members of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, WRA, Rivers State Chapter, led by the Co-ordinator, Ms Gloria Harry, presented a bill to the Rivers State House of Assembly, seeking to bring together Traditional Birth Attendants, TBAs, in the state for training in modern midwifery skills.

A procession which kicked off at the Isaac Boro Park to the state secretariat of the Traditional Rulers Council, Government House, Port Harcourt and finally to the Rivers State House of Assembly, RSHA, complex, included more than 100 members of the Alliance and some volunteers.

Given that the high mortality rate of mother and child in the society has been linked to the process of child birth, especially at the local communities where these TBAs are mostly patronized by the rural people, the initiative by the WRA for Safe Motherhood has been commended in some quarters.

For example, the Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Government House, Port Harcourt, Mr. Fortune Oguru, who stood in for Governor Rotimi Amaechi while receiving members of the Alliance, explained that the present government has health as its priority and that government would support any organization which comes up with such initiatives.

“We want to say that we appreciate the campaign embarked upon by the WRA for safe motherhood. Rivers State as a government will appreciate any organisation that is ready to co-operate in alliance with the State government. This government is a government that places health at the forefront of its policies and you are aware that the Rivers State Government has taken pains to site health centres in all communities of the state”, says Oguru.

He praised the WRA for identifying the dangers inherent in the practices of the TBAs and promised to support it in achieving their goals.

“We appreciate your observation that the TBAs have been carrying out their practices in a crude way. We support you and we will back your campaign to make sure that those of them who are ready would be trained”, Oguru adds.

According to Mr. Oguru, the government would not sit back and watch its citizens die at the hands of these local TBAs and promised to take the bill to the governor for consideration.

“We are happy, we will support, we will make sure that this bill is  presented to the governor and the governor will make inputs, and I am urging you to, in the bid of carrying your campaign, liaise with the Ministry of Health so that whatever you are doing will be in alliance with the state health policy”, Oguru concludes.

Earlier in her address at the Government House, Port Harcourt, Ms Gloria Harry explained that her organisation was alarmed at statistics at their disposal on the mortality rate of mothers and children in the state and hoped that the bill would be given the desired attention.

“Today’s presentation is to bring to the fore the fact that our mothers and sisters die needlessly every day. The TBAs perform the task of untrained birth attendants and at the end of the day, our mothers, our wives die, so we are urging government today with this bill to come up with a committee that will identify and train this people”, Harry says.

According to Ms. Harry, the aim was to check quackery in the primary health delivery system at the rural communities which more often than not results in complications and even fatalities during child births at that level.

“These people should be trained and intergrated into the system so that they will be beneficial to society, to our mothers and sisters who die needlessly”, she pleaded.

Commenting on the bill initiated by the WRA, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Rivers State Chapter, Mr. Opaka Dokubo, while welcoming the move by the WRA, adovated the inclusion of an option between orthodox and traditional methods so long as they were safe.

He said since the rural women were closer to the traditional birth attendants more than the modern medical system, the most important thing was to make the two systems safe for mother and child.

“In Rivers State, there is no doubt about the fact that government knows that such people (TBAs) exists and they do their job even in the presence of the modern health facilities. Our rural women have very high confidence in the TBAs, so I think it is only proper to regulate their practice.

“What we are saying is that wherever anybody chooses to go, let it be that it is safe, let the option be there, whoever wants to go let it be safe let the choice be there, but let us make sure all of them are safe enough for women. I think that is the kernel of it, so far as I am concerned, it is all about life, whatever we do, we cannot do too much to save the lives of our mothers and children”, Dokubo emphasized.

For Mrs Lilian Peters, programme director, Women Initiative for the Needy International, the bill should be given priority attention as, according to her, the gains could not be quantified.

She said since NGOs complement efforts of government, the TBA bill should be seen as a positive move by the WRA for safe motherhood and should be given the desired attention.

“I can say that more than 75 percent of women patronize people that are very close to them and even in these local places, women are more and they patronize them”, says Peters.

Mrs Peters, who is also the Vice-Chairman of Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Rivers State Chapter, said instances abound where infants and mothers lost their lives due to the activities of these TBAs and wants the bill to be given accelerated hearing.

“In fact I call on members of the RSHA to give priority attention to the bill. You see that even the governor of today was a child yesterday and so had it been that he died out of maybe carelessness from TBA, then he would not be governor today.

“This bill should be given accelerated hearing. It should even be passed before somebody can say “Jack Robinson”. Not only the life of the mothers are affected the children who are leaders of tomorrow will be affected if this group of  people are allowed to continue their practices in the local communities.

“When they are trained, the high mortality rate we are talking about will reduce to the barest minimum”, Peters added.

It will be recalled that Justice Mary Odili during her husband’s tenure as governor of the state, made effort towards the training of some TBAs but the impact of  those trained then was shortlived. This was because these TBAs returned to their old ways of practising their profession in the rural areas.

According to the WRA for Safe Motherhood, statistics available to them obtained from the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital, BMSH, Port Harcourt, out of every 100,000 deliveries 1,500 deaths occur, while 200 deaths occur from every 100,000 deliveries both from booked and unbooked cases respectively.