New look clinic increases visits

“Women are very selective of where they go for antenatal, delivery and family planning,” says Ndanusa Saba, head of the primary health centre at Lugbe.“These are things we should no longer ignore in this country if our maternal mortality rate must drop.”Health workers in 20-bed clinic renovated by NURHI in the last two months—and equipped […]

“Women are very selective of where they go for antenatal, delivery and family planning,” says Ndanusa Saba, head of the primary health centre at Lugbe.
“These are things we should no longer ignore in this country if our maternal mortality rate must drop.”
Health workers in 20-bed clinic renovated by NURHI in the last two months—and equipped with birth kits, drugs, beds—are now dealing with crowd control, Ndanusa says, adding the work tools help boost staff morale.
“It was not like this before, we used to beg these women to come here and take delivery and antenatal care, but they will tell you no, because of the state of the clinic.”
The number of women demanding implants for family planning purposes at the clinic has increased, and many are referred to the nearby general hospital, prompting calls to allow midwives train to deliver the same service, says Juliana Jimoh, a community health extension worker.
“If we are trained we can do it, we take delivery and that will not be difficult for us to carry out, because the midwives are not enough in health facilities,” Jimoh says.
“If we must boost our family planning programmes in this country,  CHEWs have to be trained to do implant, because people believe it works more than other [family planning methods].”
“Most of these women get discourage when they come here and we refer them, they just go back home,” she adds.