By Elizabeth Osayande

A female member of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC serving in Abuja, Ms Halimat Jimoh, has charged families on the need to help women stay healthy during pregnancy.

Jimoh disclosed this during the The Midwife Next Door Foundation outreach programme, where at least 50 expectant mothers at a Primary Health Care Centre in Lugbe, Abuja, were provided with lifesaving supplies and medical support through an outreach.

In a statement issued by the CEO of the foundation, Ms Jimoh, the outreach was a pet project to give back to society through “the facilitation of knowledge-sharing sessions” as a professional midwife.

She noted that women were vulnerable during pregnancy and required intensive care, “especially first-time mothers.”

Her words: “Last week, Wednesday, when my team staged an outreach tagged MamaSafe Initiative, the idea was to help as many expectant mums as possible to stay healthy. We partnered with the healthcare centre, and it was a success.

“We simply wanted to contribute our quota to our immediate community. One thing we have discovered is that pregnant women are vulnerable, and they deserve to be supported, especially by their immediate families,” she explained.

“Anyone carrying a life is in a critical state and requires an extra monitoring routine to ensure both mother and child are safe. Family support during pregnancy is crucial.”

Speaking further on the outreach, Ms Jimoh noted that the MamaSafe initiative had three components: distributing clean birth kits to expectant mothers, equipping the clinic with an Emergency Maternal Care Kit, and launching a digital health support community.

“In a plural society like ours, fingers are not equal. Hence, the community and government must always rise up to support these blocs of people in society.

“The clean birth kits we distributed contained essential items such as maternity pads, cord clamps, gloves, and diapers. Our goal is to help reduce infection and complications during childbirth.”

Ms Jimoh further noted that a session on “Recognising Danger Signs in Pregnancy and Childbirth and What to Do” was facilitated by a seasoned maternal health educator, Mrs Cecilia Samuel, with participants allowed to ask questions, while learning from actionable steps shared during the session for safer pregnancies.

“We didn’t just do the talking. We also gave these women the opportunity to express their concerns and challenges. We are happy that they benefited from the little initiative, and are hopeful that we can continue the initiative for greater impact.”

Despite still serving the country as a corps member, Ms Jimoh, a trained midwife and maternal health advocate, believes that every birth should be a celebration.

“Service to humanity should not wait for tomorrow. It begins with what we can do today,” she said.

Speaking on behalf of beneficiaries, a husband who had accompanied his wife to the centre described the gesture as timely and expressed gratitude to the foundation.

He said, “Fathers also carry a lot of stress during this time, and this initiative is a support for us as well.”

Meanwhile, beneficiaries also included husbands who described the gesture as a timely act of philanthropy given the current economic realities.