Women deliver on way to hospital in Kwali

Aso Chronicle gathered that the community in Yangoji ward in the Federal Capital Territory is without a primary healthcare centre, thereby making home delivery a norm in the community, rather than exception, by female residents.  
According to a resident, Iliya Zaphaniah, construction work on the primary healthcare centre in the community has been on-going since 2010, noting, however, that the work was suspended in 2012 and started again in 2014.  
He said the situation has forced the residents to resort to alternative medicine while complicated cases are taken to Yangoji or Kwali, depending on their severity.  
“More than five women have given birth on this road,” Zaphaniah said, adding that several women have safely delivered at home in the community.  
Zaphaniah added: “Since the road is bad and motorcycles are used in carrying the women, probably the shaking that the women experience riding on motorcycles is forcing the baby out. However, no death has been recorded from such deliveries.”
Moruna Shemu shared her experience with our reporter, saying: “By the time they were carrying me to the hospital, I gave birth on the road, before getting to the hospital at Yangoji.”
Shemu said delivering in the hospital is a difficult task to achieve due to distance to the hospital and deplorable road.
“My stomach was paining me, the baby would not come out and they were carrying me to Yangoji. Before we reached there, I delivered on the road. The road was rough and shaky and the baby came out.”
She said three of them, herself, her mother, who sat at the rear and held her, and the motorcyclist rode on one motorcycle, adding: “I sensed that the baby wants to come out, and I told the person manning the motorcycle to stop. I was laid on the ground by my mother who took delivery of the baby. It is because we do not have a hospital, the story would have been otherwise. The child was fine and later taken to the hospital.”
Another woman, who preferred to be called Jingo, said her experience was not better. She said she was in labour throughout the night and decision was made to take her to hospital in the morning after several failed attempts to deliver the baby.
Her journey to the hospital was cut short, however. She said:  “Before we got far, I told the motorcyclist to stop while an elderly woman took delivery of my baby by the roadside.”
She said that if she had reached the hospital, that would have been her first time of going to the hospital to deliver, adding: “I used to give birth at home, and I have delivered two children before then.”
Asked why she used to deliver at home, she said her husband could not afford to pay hospital bills.
Women in the community, however, appealed to the government to quicken the construction of the primary healthcare centre in the community. They say if the primary healthcare centre in the community was completed, their unpleasant tales would have been avoided.
In order to meet the Millennium Development Goals pertaining to improvement in maternal health, the government needs to make healthcare facilities accessible to rural dwellers.  
According to reports, “there is slow progress recorded in this regard due to poor medical facilities and half-baked doctors and nurses.”