‘How we give birth in wheelbarrows’

Madamai is a village in Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The community, located on a rocky terrain, is some three hours away from Kaduna main town; the community lacks healthcare centre, good road, schools and portable drinking water.

The journey to Madamai community which should ordinarily be a five minutes’ drive takes 20 to 25 minutes because of the bad roads which the residents say contributes to the death of many women in the area, especially those in labour.

It is also difficult for smaller vehicles to get to the area, especially during the rainy season as the roads get flooded.

This makes many women to either deliver their babies in the bush or in the wheelbarrows on their way to the clinic.

Esther Yakubu, 35, said she didn’t know she would be alive today to tell her story considering the challenges she faced when she was in labour with her fifth child, a few months ago.

She spent two days in labour in her room without any form of assistance from a health worker or traditional birth attendant because there were none in the community.

Her husband, Mr. Yakubu, could not take her to the community clinic because there were no health workers to assist her deliver the baby and there was nobody in the village that owned a car to convey her to a nearby Primary Health Care centre in Malagun community.

Her husband was left with no option than to use a wheelbarrow to convey her to the main road where he would probably get a car to take her to a clinic at Kagoro town, about five kilometers from their village.

The men in the community carry pregnant women in labour on their shoulders or use wheelbarrows to take them to other health facilities in neighbouring communities to deliver their babies.

“The pain became too much for me to bear so I decided to push the baby out while in the wheelbarrow. It was a miracle that I delivered the child safely in that condition,” Esther said.

She said that several other women in the community were not that lucky as they either died on the way to the clinic or while giving birth at home, adding that most pregnant women in the village do not attend antenatal.

“We don’t have a functioning clinic in this village now. Women prefer to deliver their babies at home because we usually go into labour at night and the nearest healthcare centre is about five kilometers away,” said Dorothy Suleiman another resident in the community.

“And also due to the stress from being conveyed in a wheelbarrow to the hospital, as in the process some become very weak, we at times end up losing both mother or the child,” she said.

The 30-yearold housewife said residents of the community also suffer from waterborne disease because of lack of potable water.

“My 10-yearold daughter and 8-year-old son, usually wake up as early as 5:00a.m. to accompany me to the stream to fetch the water,” she said.

“We drink water from the same stream with some of the animals in this community. So, in order not to drink after the animals have spoiled the water, women wake up early to go and fetch before the goats and pigs are released by their owners,” Andrew Lekwot, another resident of Madamai village said.

The residents said that two boreholes provided by a member of the House of Representatives were no longer working.

The village head, Galadima Bulus, appealed for support to solve the water problem in the area.

He said: “Presently, we constantly suffer from typhoid. We think it has to do with the water we drink. So we need help from well-meaning individuals and government.

“No doubt women in Madamai community face a lot of challenges during childbirth. The only clinic in the village was built by the people in the community because they do not know when the local and state governments will provide them with one in the area.

“When we built the community clinic, the government sent us two health workers to be assisting us but they are always not available in the clinic to assist women during childbirth.

“They are not always in the clinic because they are not comfortable with our road, especially during rainy season. They are also always complaining that there are no drugs to give to the people. Worst still, pregnant women are not allowed to deliver in the clinic,” he said.

Kaduna State is one of the states with high rate of maternal mortality in n the orth-west, with 70 percent of women giving birth at home, according to the state government.

The state Commissioner of Budget and Planning, Muhammad Sani, said the government was significantly improving the Primary Health Care (PHC) system to stop the ugly trend.

Madamai is one of the communities looking forward to the establishment of standard PHC in their areas by the state government.