BY Dayo Johnson, Akure

GOVERNOR Olusegun Mimiko is blaming traditional birth attendants in Ondo State over maternal mortality. While reading riot act to them, Mimiko said the state government will  empower them to do other businesses so that they don’t continue to  endanger the lives of pregnant women who patronise them.

Meanwhile, the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Death in Ondo State (CEMDOS), which submitted its annual report, showed that the state recorded 114 deaths out of the 45, 000 deliveries in the last one year. The Coordinator of CEMDOS, Dr. Olawale Oyeneyin, reading  the report, said maternal mortality had  reduced by 45 per cent and was planning to improve on the statistics in the next one year.

Oyeniyi stated, “It  was discovered that two major things namely excessive bleeding and severe hypertension were responsible for deaths of women during delivery.
Mimiko, while speaking at the presentation of the report and a meeting with traditional rulers, noted that traditional birth attendants had no role to play again in the system.

The governor  said government was planning alternative means of livelihood for them because of the havoc they are causing pregnant women.
According to him, the “state government was ready to register the people, train them in other areas of living and empower them to begin  new businesses.”

He  lamented  that their actions were causing negative effects on  pregnant women.
”In Ondo State today, we have enough hands and we don’t need traditional birth attendants again. We will organise a reliable and lasting exit package for them to enable them have enough means of livelihood after leaving the business of birth attendant,”Mimiko stated.

”Research has shown that nine out of 10 women that die during childbirth didn’t go to hospital and unfortunately many women that go to hospital for ante-natal don’t go to hospital for delivery and this is causing a lot of problem for the system”.

The governor said the state would begin  full implementation of the law on CEMDOS as people who fail to report maternal death would be prosecuted.
Mimiko  said there would be no punishment against anybody that discloses death during birth, adding the only non disclosure could lead to prosecution.

He advised pregnant women to always visit government facilities for their deliveries.
The governor noted that  many of those things that kill women during childbirth are things that could be solved in five minutes by qualified medical personnel.

Health Commissioner, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, said the state had  moved from being the worst state in the South-west of the country to the best in Africa in terms of reduction of maternal mortality.