Mothers on zig-zagging way to maternity hospitals

Teaching hospitals are still good, the only challenge is that you may have to spend hours in the hospital because of the large number of patients

Halima Adamu chose the hospital where she would give birth even before she became pregnant. She registered for antenatal at Customs Clinic, a small hospital staffed by Customs officials. She could have used the Nyanya District Hospital, but didn’t.

“I know Nyanya would have more experienced hands, but Customs is smaller-and they take better care of you,” Adamu explains.

She gave birth by lantern, was monitored for 48 hours, then discharged. She returned to keep immunisation appointments for her child, but she is now considering changing to a private hospital after an incident this week.

“My child was taken ill on Sunday. On Monday, which was Democracy Day, I took him to hospital. The entire [sic] admin didn’t want to do anything because it was a holiday. They said my child’s case was not an emergency.”

Public hospital staff are disrespectful to women, she complained.

A study this year backs her up. Researchers documented evidence of “physical abuse including slapping, physical restraint to a delivery bed, and detainment in the hospital and verbal abuse, such as shouting and threatening women with physical abuse” in two Abuja hospitals.

Many working mothers and affluent women would prefer to use private hospitals. For a fee, their comfort is guaranteed, they don’t need to deal with crowds waiting to get consultations and access to care is only presumed.

What public-or general-hospitals have over private is more experienced personnel, despite the congestion and stress that characterise them.

Celestina Ihenacho, mother of two and living in Jos, had both her children at a private hospital. It is popular and frequented by many working women but has just one gynaecologist, who is absent most times.

But the hospital scores well among women for its care of newborns.

“No matter how safe your delivery was or how healthy your baby looks, you will not be discharged until the paediatrician monitors the baby for 24 hours,” Iheanacho says.

“That was how my child was detected with jaundice and we had to stay in the hospital for additional seven days.”

The mother of two said she was diagnosed with uterine prolapse because she was in labour for too long and no surgeon was available to operate on her.

“In my hospital, it is nurses who take delivery and because there was only one gynaecologist and she was unavailable despite calls put to her, I developed uterine prolapse.”

By contrast, Margaret Idowu, 46, who gave birth to her third child last month at the Jos University Teaching hospital (JUTH), opted for a teaching