TOYIN ADEBAYO, ABUJA
Aisha Abeeb, a pregnant woman in Pesepa community in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory has called on the Council Chairman, Musa Dikko to rehabilitate the road leading to the community to avoid pregnant women delivering on their way to access healthcare and reduce maternal mortality in Bwari.
Lamenting the plight of pregnant women in the community, Aisha said the road leading to the community from the area council is not motorable and calls for urgent attention.
She made this known in an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Abuja, saying, “Even public transporters don’t patronized us because of the bad state of the road, we only depend on motorcycle to take us for antenatal and delivery in Bwari”.
According to her, some pregnant women delivered on the road to Bwari General Hospital, the Primary healthcare in Pesepe cannot meet our need, there is no Paracetamol in the center so most of us prefer to go to Bwari which is about two hours from our community to access antenatal and delivery.
She further stated that, “I prefer to deliver at home rather than going through the stress of riding on motorcycle during labour (which mostly occurs in the night) on this dilapidated road I prefer to deliver at home”.
She added that, the community with the population of over three thousand who are predominately farmers are in dear need of a functional primary healthcare, this according to her will alleviate the suffering of pregnant and nursing mothers to access health services.
Meanwhile, the District Head of the Community, Chief Bulus Wakili has appealed to the council to provide functional healthcare facility to save the lives of women and children in the area.
He said that lack of functional healthcare center had exposed his people especially women to untold suffering and avoidable deaths.
He buttressed that women in the community were often conveyed on motorcycles to cover about 40 kilometers to Bwari town to attend antenatal and child deliveries.
The ruler however, recalled that two women lost her life recently in the community when she was in labour and could not access health services on time.
