Gbarnga, Bong County – Health Officer, Dr. Gorbee Logan says traditional healers, herbalists, midwives must be blamed for the increase in maternal mortality, emphasizing the need for a behavioural change amongst them.
“We need to start working on the behavioural change of the Traditional herbalists and spiritual leaders to make them see that if there is a complication they cannot handle, they should refer it to the clinic before the patient dies,” he says.
“Because the traditional midwives, traditional healers and the spiritual leaders are the people blocking the passage way in allowing pregnant women to come to the clinic for safe delivery, and we will keep engaging them.”
Bong County is said to be the second County with more health facilities than any county in Liberia but yet it has one of the highest number of maternal and new born deaths in the country.
“The issue of maternal death in Liberia has become a nationwide issue but Bong County is said to have a higher number because at least Bong County is reporting maternal deaths, more than any other county in Liberia. So, this is why you see the number—it looks high,” said Dr. Logan.
Making this revelation recently in Bong County during the opening of the Beletanda Clinic, Dr. Logan disclosed that the maternal mortality rate was 994 and then it reduced to 770, but during the Ebola, when pregnant women started dying because of no hospital but only ETUs, the number went up to 1,072.
When whether it will be a good idea to allow the traditional healers and midwives to be assigned to each hospital and clinic, he said it is a good idea but it needs to be worked on by the Ministry of Health as it requires an engagement with communities that believe in the traditional herbalists midwives spiritual leaders.
He said working to reduce maternal mortality rate is everybody’s business. And the situation of behavioural change will improve with time, so everybody including the media, civil society, local authorities, health workers, need to get on board and engage the traditional people in the rural areas in making them to see reason in saving a pregnant woman’s life.
In 2012, the United Nations Children’s Fund reported that Liberia had 990 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births, 34 neonatal deaths per 1000 live births and a lifetime risk of maternal death of one in 20.
The corresponding values reported in 2014 were similar: 990 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births, 27 neonatal deaths per 1000 live births and a lifetime risk of maternal death of one in 24.
Apprenticeship-based training in advanced obstetric care was undertaken in CB Dunbar Maternity Hospital, which lies in Bong county – a rural area of almost 9000 km2 with a population of about 330 000.
This hospital is the county’s main provider of maternity care, caring for approximately 2000 deliveries per year – many seriously complicated by poverty and by delays in transfer from remote villages.
Mae Azango [email protected]