ω A Kaduna community where pregnancy means death to women
From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Maiyola, a community deep inside Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State, for whatever anybody may care, represents many communities today where there is no trace of government presence, especially in form of provision of medical clinics and other basic amenities like water, electricity and good roads.
The road to Maiyola
Located about 100 kilometres from Kaduna, the state capital, Maiyola 1, 2 and 3 is a Fulani nomad community with about 5,000 dwellers who are mainly herders and farmers, producing virtually all they need for daily sustenance including herbs for their medical needs. This, according to them, has led to many avoidable deaths involving pregnant women and infants.
To start with, accessing the community itself is a herculean task. The moment you descend from the single-lane Kaduna-Kafanchan expressway at a place called Railway Crossing, you must look for a place to pull up if you are driving and seek the help of a commercial motorcyclist who will bill you about N2,000 for an hour and 10 minutes journey to the place.
Once you agree with the term of service set for you by the commercial motorcyclist, your journey into the unknown world has just begun. At this juncture, you will need to earnestly pray and hope for the best as you join in the bumpy, ride in the ‘Irunmole’ forest that borders Kajuru and Kachia Local Government areas of the state. And of course, all your senses must be put on alert as you and your rider fly past different shapes of thatched houses, breed of cattle, sheep and fowls; rivers, small streams and rivulets, on your route. One thing you cannot avoid as you ride through the rough rocky path that links Maiyola with the rest of the state is communion with these natural vistas.
Forsaken community
A traditional leader called Aldo Fulani leads Fulani communities. At Maiyola, aged Alhaji Abu Maiyola is the one saddled with that responsibility. During this visit, he spoke through Safiyanu Umaru, a respected elder in the community and interpreter.
“There has never been a time government officials visited us,” he explained. “We hope your visit will bring development to this community.” One area he and other members of the community would want that development to start is in the provision of health care, the building of hospitals and maternity wards or clinics for their pregnant mothers. “Honestly, our women do suffer a lot right from their time of conception,” he said. “In fact, anytime our women are pregnant, we keep watch until they deliver safely. You have seen that for yourself. There is no clinic and other social amenities here in Maiyola and this village has been in existence for over 40 years. We are living here by the mercy of God.”
Tales of woe
The complaint about maternal and infant mortality, and subsequent call for provision of medical facilities, no matter how minimal, you would soon find out, is quite common in this community. Another resident, Mohammed Adamu, shared his bitter experience of how he lost his wife owing to lack of good community healthcare.
“I remember the day I took my wife to hospital during childbirth but before reaching a nearby clinic for help, she developed complications and lost her life in the process,” he narrated bitterly in a chat with Saturday Sun before adding that “these are some of the problems our women go through. She really suffered on that day before she and the baby died. So we are very happy to see you in our community because we have never seen journalists face-to-face but here you are in our community. We also need primary school in Maiyola so that our children can be educated. They don’t go to school which is far from the community due to lack of security. We hope all these can be addressed if the government really wants to assist us.”
Another elder from the village, Muhammad Haruna, lamented that the community has never benefited from any government project since inception, “We always heard on radio about people talking about dividends of democracy; for us it remains a mirage. This is because we are yet to witness any dividend of democracy. No good roads. People are suffering from all type of ailments. We have a very large population. We made complaints to our local government officials but our efforts have not yielded any positive response. We equally have children of school age that are out of school because of distance and security risks.”
Aliyu Adamu, a resident of the community also lamented the issue of maternal deaths which he said has been a big challenge to the villagers. “Our women really suffer during childbirth and our community school are without teachers,” he said. “We need health facility in the village no matter how small to make it easier for us to visit with our spouses. We are actually in dire need of Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) close to us because I almost lost my wife during childbirth sometime last year. So, we are very worried about this issue of maternal and infant mortality.
“Another big problem is our inability to participate in the election of our leaders during election. We have a large population but without a voting centre. At least let them know people are here and we are interested in participating in governance. Like other citizens, we want to offer our contributions towards electing our leaders but we’re disenfranchised due to lack of voting centre in Maiyola. Lack of water is another big challenge in Maiyola. Because of this, our women and children do walk several kilometres to fetch water daily. Actually, we drink water from the same stream with our animals. Here, good drinking water is a luxury.”
In the absence of modern health facilities, 60-year-old Salamatu Haruna, who gave birth to 13 children says they depend on herbal medication to take care of their pregnant women. “Even though I am no more of child-bearing age, I’m aware that women suffer a lot during childbirth in this community,” she told Saturday Sun. “This is why we used herbs in years gone by and they really worked for us. But these young women now always suffer during labour. I don’t know why. They are being treated like fowls. I never attended antenatal care because of the distance and bad road between the village and Kachia. I might go once during pregnancy and deliver at home because we have traditional birth attendants to assist us.
“Nowadays, we record deaths of women because of bad road. For instance, when a woman is in labour at midnight, there’s no car to take her to the hospital in good time. So she might end up developing complications that sometimes lead to death because there is no nearby hospital or health centre or even trained health workers around to take care of such cases.”
Another woman, Hafsat Abubakar said she does not go to hospital for antenatal care because she cannot walk long distance. “Any time I am pregnant, I don’t go to hospital because the pregnancy comes with fever and since there is no hospital close by, I prefer to stay at home and take local herbs as it is our culture. I know of four women who lost their lives in the process of childbirth. In the absence of healthcare centre, we prefer to patronise traditional birth attendants because that’s the only option we have here in Miayola.”
Zainab Abubakar, another member of the community said although she does go, from time to time, for antenatal care, it is infrequent because of the distance and lack of motorcycle that will take her to the hospital. “I prefer to go to patent medicine store or general hospital,” she said. “I have the opportunity because I live close to the road. I know of five pregnant women who died in the community during delivery and that is not good. How can a woman die when she can live?”
Like others, she too has come to rely on traditional birth attendants to take care of her delivery during pregnancy. “I do give births at home because my mother is a traditional birth attendant and the culture here is when it is time for you to give birth, you go to your parents’ house and not your husband’s house,” she said. “I attended antenatal services once because I was asked to go for scanning in Kaduna and I spent a lot before going for the scanning. Accessing healthcare services here is very difficult because some of us also feel lazy when you think of how to walk to the Crossing before going to Kachia or Idon before you get to hospital.”