By Steven Bockarie Mansaray in Kabala
A reproductive health and women's welfare organisation has partnered with the First Lady’s office in Freetownto engage stakeholders in Koinadugu district on maternal health issues following a sharp decrease in clinic attendance.
National programmes advocacy advisor of the group called Mamaye, Sowo Lebbie, engaged the local authorities at the district council hallin Kabala and encouraged them to help increase the knowledge of pregnant women on the signs, symptoms, modes of transmission and prevention measures of Ebola.
“We want to build trust and confidence in pregnant women so that they can make use of available health facilities in the district, even so when the Ebola virus disease is ravaging the country”, she said, adding that their organisation had given active attention to “the seven enablers” such as water and sanitation, staffing, drugs, referrals, equipment, blood and laboratory.
The team from Freetown also shared maternal death review findings with the authorities to stress the need for pregnant women to make regular use of the health centers and the Kabala government hospital.
Representative of the First Lady, Moses Beckley, expressed similar concerns and asked the people to fight Ebola together with infant and maternal mortality collectively for the good of the district and the country.
Christiana Sannoh, the district health sister, explained that the attendance of pregnant women has decreased in the hospital and health centers across the district due to the fear of Ebola. She said the district health management team and other partners had tried to allay the fears of pregnant women but that the attendance was not encouraging.
Sister Sannoh thanked the team from Freetown for calling attention to the problem, adding that the district was free of Ebola and that “pregnant women must trust the health facilities for their own good”.
Chairman of the Koinadugu district council, Sheku Samuel Kamara, thanked the team and promised to advise his councilors to encourage pregnant women in their wards to always visit health centers and make use of the free health care facilities. He said that attitude would help reduce infant and maternal mortality in the district.
Monitoring and evaluation officer of the district health management team, Umaro Dumbuya,agreed that the clinic and general attendance were low in the immediate past months. He said that low attendance had affected their budget.
A pregnant woman in Kabala, Aminata Sillah, told Politico that they had had rumours that the health center was not safe and was the easiest place to contract the Ebola virus, especially so when health workers were dying from the disease in other parts of the country. “That created fear amongst us,” she said.
(C) Politico 09/10/14
