Guidance Community Development Foundation by virtue of staff strength, Capability, level of competence and present collaborative status is well positioned to carry out activities relevant to activities of Community based health facilites including traditional birth attendant’s centers, faith based maternity homes and private health centers should be examined and aligned with the dictates of medical conditions of public health importance.
Community Development project
Guildance Community Development Foundation Plans to evaluate the following Interventions from this research:
i. Participants perception of the interventions highlighted below in terms of acceptance and equity analysis
ii. Impact of the interventions in terms of comparative analysis (Pre-and post intervention state) of uptake of immunization and HIV/VCT opportunities ability to identify danger signs and referral, records of maternal and infant mortality, universal precaution practice and skill acquisition programmes attended within the period.
iii. Attitudinal change to level of hygiene and sanitation
iv. Prevalence of HIV among community birth attendants and pregnant women who attend their facilites.
v. Uptake of tetanus toxoid by pregnant women patronizing the CBAs and initiation of immunization for their new born babies
Over the years, Guildance Community Development Foundation had been of the opinion that activities of Community based health facilites including traditional birth attendant’s centers, faith based maternity homes and private health centers should be examined and aligned with the dictates of medical conditions of public health importance.
Some of the observations made are:-
- Community based health facilities (private clinics, community birth attendants centre and faith based maternity homes) constitutes an integral part of healthy systems in Nigeria and enjoy wide patronage bridging the gap created by dearth of qualified trained midwives.
- Clientele of these centers cut across all known demographic strata; education, religion, social status, ethnicity etc.
- While private clinic owners and faith based maternity operators were well organized and have meeting platforms, traditional birth attendants are disjointed.
- There exists collaborative arrangement among some faith based maternity houses for referral services while update courses are organized for community extension health workers who in turn have direct working relations with local birth attendants.
- Traditional birth attendants in a large number of the centers and faith based maternity homes do not run regular and healthy antenatal care (ANC) programmes missing out immunization, HIV voluntary counseling and testing, Hygienic labour, danger signs of labour and delivery and healthy post partum and early neonatal care. Based on the above observations, Guildance Community Development Foundation subsequently embarked on mass education involving the groups of traditional birth attendants and faith based maternity operators (many of them are not educated but have mastered the art of labour and delivery) to discuss important public health issues surrounding safe motherhood and child health. Specific interventions being adopted (presently at low scale) are:-
i. Importance of taking Tetanus Toxoid in pregnancy (except the woman has completed 5 doses before index pregnancy or there is medical contraindication).
ii. Voluntary HIV/VCT with the aim of identifying positive cases for care and PMTCT of HIV.
iii. Universal precaution practice including HIV/AIDS prevention practices
iv. Skill acquisition to identifying danger signs in labour and prompt referral to higher facilities.
v. High standard of hygiene and sanitation
vi. Prompt enrolment of newborn babies for National programme on Immunization.
