The Ogun Government has trained 2,000 Traditional Birth Attendants on pregnancy complications during child birth.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Babatunde Ipaye, said this during an interactive session with newsmen on Saturday in Abeokuta.
He said the training had become imperative in order to reduce the morbidity and mortality rate of mothers and children during child bearing.
Ipaye said the training was carried out in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA).
He said that part of the pregnancy complications needed to watch out for are: prolonged labour, bleeding during pregnancy, bridge positioning of the child, among others.
According to the commissioner, the birth attendants have been trained to urgently refer complications in pregnancy to general hospitals close to them.
“Because some of our people, particularly the rural dwellers, believe and have trust in traditional birth attendants, we took it upon ourselves to engage them in training on complications during and after pregnancy in both the child and mother.
“They should quickly refer the patient to the nearest general hospital, if the complications mentioned earlier persists in any of their patients,’’ Ipaye said.
He said that since the trainings began, the state had recorded massive reduction in mothers and child death during pregnancy.
The commissioner said that the training would be done across the 20 local governments and the 37 Local Government Development Council Areas (LCDAs) of the state. (NAN)