A Plan project to train and support traditional birth attendants in Liberia is giving women in remote rural areas access to safe maternal health care services for the first time.

In 2007, a report by the United Nations support team in Lofa showed that there were just 53 health facilities in the county for an estimated population of 416,173. The majority of these health centres are in the more accessible districts of Voinjama, Zorzor and Salayea while Vahun, Kolahun and Foya are harder to access due to poor road conditions.

As a result many women in the outlying remote villages have no access to adequate maternal health care services. Babies are usually delivered by traditional birth attendants (TBAs) who lack training, appropriate facilities and equipment.

To address this situation, Plan Liberia is providing training in improved birth delivery for TBAs, and supplying them with improved birth delivery kits, birth delivery facilities in communities, and support referral facilities in clinics.

Baby deaths

Tewah Fallah, aged 34, is one of the TBAs benefiting from the programme. She delivers all of the babies in Milimala, a rural community in north west Lofa, and the feeder villages.

“I have handled a good number of child births in my community with some successful and some failed deliveries,” said Tewah.

“The unsuccessful ones are mainly because of the fact that some of the cases can be very critical and without good delivery materials, the child and sometimes the mother dies,” she added.

Safe techniques

Tewah is among 30 women who have received TBA training and support from Plan. She is now head of the trainees after performing very well in training sessions.

“The training has exposed me to a lot of safe delivery techniques, referral guides and other methods of preventing child and maternal deaths during birth. With this training and support, our children and mothers will no longer die during birth delivery. 

“I am very thankful to Plan Liberia and the people who give the money for this project for me and my friends to be trained and pray that Plan Liberia will continue to do the same for other communities that are very far away from the health centre in Foya town,’’ she said.