By Longtong Ibrahim
Residents of Madamai community have decried the unavailability of midwives and inadequate healthcare providers in their health facility, saying, in times of emergencies, the easiest form of mobility to take patients to the nearest hospital is ‘the wheel barrow’.
Madamai is a village in Kpak ward of Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna state in northwestern Nigeria. It is made up of Madamai I and Madamai II with about 8500 people who are mostly farmers. They cultivate mostly Yam, Okro, Maize and a local bean known as ‘waken Mada’.
The hilly village just like most rural communities in Nigeria is been deprived of basic infrastructures such as good roads, electricity, portable drinking water and a standard healthcare centers.
The slippery nature of the road into Madamai especially during rainy season makes it difficult for vehicles and motorcycle to ply, as such, wheel barrow becomes the best form of mobility to transport any pregnant woman who is in labor or any emergency cases to the major road or nearest hospital. The nearest hospital to the community is Turaki Bugai memorial hospital and Kaura General Hospital which is both located about five kilometers away from the community.
“The road is bad that even a bike can slip or a car get trap in the mud,” Mrs. Esther Yakubu, a resident of the Community said. According to her, when a woman is in labor or even emergencies, the men take off their shoes and push the woman while others follow to monitor her in case she delivers on the way, saying, the best thing is to push since the road is sloppy while going out.
Mrs. Yakubu who is a mother of five explained that, she delivered two babies at a healthcare centre and equally enjoyed the wheel barrow ride, noting that, there are instances where women deliver on the way, and they are returned to the village to be taken care of traditionally.
Explaining how they tackled some of the challenges arising from complications such as bleeding, Mrs. Madeline P. Akwok said they used traditional herbs to manage it and in any case it persists, they rush such patient to the nearest hospital which is five kilometer away from the village.
She also noted that with the little experience she has gained while attending ante natal of her pregnancies, it has enable her to render some form of assistance to women in the community during labor.
According to her, most of the women in the community are reluctant when it comes to attending ante natal but the little experience she had while attending antenatal has enabled her to render some form of assistance to many women who gave birth at home.
She added that in recent time, the community has not recorded any dead of women as a result of any pregnancy related complications but six babies died between January and August 2017.
Corroborating what the women said, the community leader, Mr. Andrew Lekwot said even though government has sent some healthcare providers to the community’s health centre which was built through community effort, sometimes the staff are hardly seen in the facility.
He also lamented the state of roads and lack of other infrastructure in the area, saying, “whenever it rain, the teachers that comes to teach our pupils don’t make it to the village; our women cannot take their farm produce to the market because of the bad condition of road which links the village to town.
V2V is a project facilitated by LEADS Nigeria with support from Christian Aid in Kaduna state, aimed at promoting accountability to address issues of development by empowering citizens to influence decision making around service delivery and to hold leaders accountable for improved public service.
