Reproductive health: FG urges Kano to adopt national self-care guidelines

Afolabi explained that the minister of Health had inaugurated a task force to look at the emphasis of the self care guidelines, its importance in improving access to care and uptake of interventions on the healthcare service.

He said that the national self-care and self injection guidelines were developed by the Federal Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), and with support from Pathfinder, JSI, SFH, PATH, among others.

He further added that the guidelines were designed to improve Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health (RMCN) services in the country.

The director explained that the domestication of the guidelines would set the ball rolling to scale up self-care policies and programmes, in order to transform health care systems and place autonomy, power, and control in the hands of women and children.

Afolabi added that the guidelines, approved by the minister of health, had four thematic areas geared towards addressing critical areas where a higher burden of diseases were being recorded.

“We refer to our safe care guidelines as the national guidelines for safe-care for sexual, reproductive and maternal health; while the fourth thematic area include areas that looked at improving ante natal care, delivery and new born care.

“Another key thematic area is in providing high quality services for family planning, post abortion care and combating sexually transmitted infections.

“What we expect from the state government is to approve and support the goal of expanding access to self care across all the local government areas of the state,” he added.

He maintained that the Ministry was also working tirelessly to create awareness and channels of accessing self care, with a view to uplifting the health status of the general populace.

Responding, the state commissioner for health, Dr. Aminu Tsanyawa, reiterated the state government’s commitment to ensure effective implementation of the programme in the state.

Tsanyawa, said it was essential to support women and reduce maternal mortality, stressing the need for stakeholders to work collectively to fast track implementation of the self care programme.

He stated that the state government had renovated over 500 heath facilities out of 1,200, to ensure a good and conducive working environment for the health workers.

The commissioner also restated the state governments commitment to provide quality and accessible health care to the state, while lauding the Federal Government’s support, including the self-care guidelines which, he described, as a positive development in uplifting the health status of the populace.

Also speaking, Dr Amina Aminu, the Country Director, Pathfinder, a development partner to the Self Care programme, said increased access to information would reduce the spate of maternal mortality and other health challenges.

She said that the adoption of the guidelines would be a huge win for Kano and northern Nigeria as a whole.

Aminu expressed hope that the state government would adopt the self -care guidelines to improve reproductive, maternal and child health in the state. (NAN)