Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Kaduna State commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Mohammed Baloni, has on Thursday declared in Kaduna that all obstetric services, delivery and surgical intervention for pregnant women are free.
Speaking during high level conference on Obstetric Fistula organised by Kaduna State government, Fifth Chukker Polo and Country Club in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Mohammed Baloni, said pregnancy is not a disease but unfortunately some of the pregnancies ended up in a predicament leading to the death of the women or complication such as obstetric fistula, if the woman survives.
She lamented that the society has not been fair to fistula survivors who were often sent back home by their husbands or get divorced in worse cases.
The commissioner explained that the administration of governor Nasir El-Rufai considers preventing obstetric fistula a high priority.
She said the take-off of the state supported social insurance was to ensure equity in service provision to the people of Kaduna State.
According to her, government is working assiduously to improve the quality of services at health facilities by recruiting technical and supporting health workers to fill in the existing gap, supplying necessary equipment and providing regular supportive supervision to ensure standard of service provision.
However, one of Vesico Vaginal Fistula(VVF) survivor who did not mention her name shared her experience in tears while thanking the wife of Kaduna State governor, Hajiya Ummi El-Rufai for leading war against VVF in the state, just as she decried the stigmatization and rejection by friends and even her relatives.
On her part, wife of Kaduna State governor, Hajiya Ummi El-Rufai, who was crowned ambassador of fistula as an encouragment to her to tackle VVF menace, said she will not relent until fistula will be eliminated in the state, calling on wealthy individuals, corporate organisations, among others to support VVF survivors.
