Expert Wants Govt To Institutionalise TBAs In Healthcare

An expert in Mother-To-Child Transmission (MTCT) of HIV, Dr. Abiola Davies, has called on both Federal and State Governments to institutionalise Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) in their healthcare delivery systems as a way of checking MTCT in Nigeria.
Dr. Davies, who made the call in an exclusive interview, noted that the call is necessitated by the fact that given the dependence on TBAs by pregnant woman, it will be safer to work with them.
She explained that pregnant women often prefer TBAs for reasons bothering on stigmatisation and finance, especially in the rural or hard-to-reach areas.
“Since we cannot stop the trend, we should be able to work with them, if we truly want to save our women”, she said.
To achieve this, she said, States should have “a list of all TBAs – map all the TBAs that are available in the State. Then, they should be able to do women form of orientation or training for the TBAs to let them know what is expected of them, and their limitations”.
She continued that they should be taught key skills as how to test pregnant women of HIV, and even be provided with free self-testing kits, with which to test the pregnant women who patrionise them, without charging them.
Davies also stated the need for the TBAs to know when a case is beyond them and hence require being referred to a competent healthcare facility, noting that it will encourage HIV positive women to access such facilities.
She, however, also noted that whenever such referrals are made, and the women end up delivering in the healthcare facilities, the TBAs lose money, adding that this could discourage the TBAs.
To encourage them, therefore, she said, “there should be some form of compensation for them (TBAs) to encourage them continue to refer cases that are beyond them.
“We can’t do without them, so we have to embrace them. We should be able to train them to know their limitations, and be able to motivate them to know that when they have limitations, they should refer them (positive pregnant women)”, she said.
She used the opportunity to state two key challenges to tracking identified HIV positive mothers that are lost to follow-up.
According to her, the challenges are lack of electronic or digitised data on the women, and wrong contacts deliberately given by the affected women to avoid stigmatisation.
She, therefore, called on all stakeholders, including the media, to “preach the gospel”, noting that end to MTCT of HIV can be achieve.
“We just need the right things to be done in the country. Other countries that have less money have done it. It is doable”, she said.

By: Sogbeba Dokubo