Register With PHC Boards Or Face Sanctions – LASG Warns TBAs


By Chioma Umeha
Lagos
Community leaders in Lagos state have been charged to fish out unregistered Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and ensure their registration as soon as possible otherwise they will face full wrath of the law.
Giving the charge on Thursday, was the Chairman, House Committee on Health, LSHA, Hon Segun Olulade, who noted that unregistered TBAs in the State now outnumber the registered ones and warned that it will no longer be business as usual for them.Community leaders in Lagos state have been charged to fish out unregistered Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and ensure their registration as soon as possible otherwise they will face full wrath of the law.
Olulade who spoke during the Town Hall Meeting on Maternal & Child Mortality Reduction Programme at the Ikorodu Town Hall, Ita-Ilewa, Ikorodu, Lagos, also observed that some of the TBAs, including the unregistered ones were exceeding the limits of their scope of operation.
He also blamed the unregistered TBAs for contributing to the high maternal and infant mortality rates by the failing to refer pregnant and nursing women with complications to public health facilities on time.
The Chairman, Lagos State House of Assembly (LSHA), Committee on Health said:   “It has come to the notice of the government that unregistered Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) are more than those registered. This is no longer acceptable.
“We would like to implore our community leaders to please fish out these unregistered Traditional Birth Attendants and persuade them to register as soon as possible before the law catches up with them.”
He explained, “the acceptance of TBAs practices came into being due to the cultural beliefs of our people with the understanding that the registered Traditional Birth Attendants will work only within the limitation of their practice. Thus they are not expected to use any orthodox tablets, injections or instruments because they are not technically trained to apply them.”
He therefore warned all TBAs to operate within their limitations and refer their patients on time to public health facilities to prevent the unnecessary death of mothers and their children.
Earlier, the Health Commissioner, Dr Jide Idris, remarked that the essence of the meeting was to discuss child and mother strategies in order to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates.
The Lagos Health boss further said that this is a sensitization programme which has held three Senatorial Districts, “now we are visiting the LGAs to hold a similar programme and tell them what to do.”
He admitted: “Our facilities are not enough and we are renovating more, some of our staff their attitude is very bad, TBAs are compounding the problem.
“We have decided to train the TBAs; we want to find out the root causes of this problem. Our community leaders must take responsibilities, to be our ears and our eyes. The leader of TBAs is here. All of us have to work together to ensure that the women deliver safely and children are born safely.”
The high point of the event was the open declaration of 44 TBAs who responded to the call of the Oba Kabiru Adewale Shotobi, the Ayangburen of Ikorodu, for free registration sponsorship with the Primary Health Care Board(PHCB) at the sum of N6,000 each.
The Sole Administrator of Ikorodu LGA, Hon Ogunleye Gbolahan called on the governor to intervene to reduce the maternal and infant mortality as well as neonatal rates, saying: “The rate is high, the wife of the governor is took the trouble to put together this programme to encourage women to utilize the 25 PHCs in Ikorodu LGA.”
Mrs. Bolanle Ambode , wife of the Lagos state governor, urged participants, community leaders, community-based organizations among others to encourage pregnant women to embrace the free antenatal care, delivery services at government facilities.

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