The Niger State School of Midwifery in Minna has called on young women in the state to leverage on the school to better the rural antenatal and postnatal needs.
The Provost of the school, Mrs Aisha Maikudi, disclosed this in an interview in Minna on Sunday.
The provost noted that leveraging on the school would enhance maternal health in the state especially in the rural areas.
Maikudi said that there was dearth of midwives in the rural areas because some local government areas did not take advantage of slots that were always made available to them.
“This session of 2017/2018, some local government areas did not fill the slot the institution gave to them.
“We have 25 local government areas in the state but Agwara, Magama and Mariga Local Governments did not fill their slots.
“Such is inimical to maternal health care in the state and to those areas. The more advantage they take on such opportunities, the more opportunities they are likely to get in future.
“A lot of pregnant women are dying during child birth and after birth because they do not have access to midwife’s care in the rural areas.
“Majority of the health workers live in the urban areas while there was large population of child bearing women in the rural areas.
“In the rural areas in Niger, our women deliver more than the urban women and they do not have access to midwives.
“That is why they usually resort to traditional birth attendants who put mother and the unborn child at high risk,” she said.
Maikudi explained that when the rural girl child was encouraged to study midwifery she would in turn have the capacity to help the rural population.
Similarly, the Provost decried the lack of career counseling in the rural schools.
“In the course of my advocacy visit in some schools in the rural areas the students claimed that they did not know there was a course called midwifery,” she said.
She called on Agwara, Magama and Mariga Councils to take advantage of the opportunity anytime it presented itself, while urging principals to educate their students on career choices. (NAN)
