Yobe govt Steps Up Distribution of free ‘Mama kit’ to pregnant women

Ibrahim Umar
Kanempress
15th, April,2023

The Yobe State Government under the administration of Governor Mai Mala Buni CON, has steps up distribution of ‘Mama Kits’ in continued fight for maternal and child health across the state.

Improving maternal health and encouraging expectant women to deliver at a government healthcare facilities is a priority for the Buni administration.

Several interventions are being implemented by the administration to boost institutional delivery. One of such interventions is the provision of well packaged ‘Mama Kits’.

One of the major factors hindering pregnant women from delivering at government health facilities includes, lack of baby wrappers, hygiene issues, attitude of health workers, lack of privacy in the delivery room, and delivery posture.

Surprisingly enough, a number of women cited the lack of baby wrapper as the biggest challenge.

“To deliver at the health center, you needed to be ready to put up with the nurses harsh words. ‘Why do you have children if you can’t afford a cloth to wrap your baby?’ the midwives would tell us,” says Hajiya Hauwa, a mother of three. This pushed the mothers away, and they resorted to delivering at home or with the help of traditional birth attendants.

Faced with this unexpected problem, the Yobe State Government steps up distribution of the Mama Kit package which is given free of charge to every pregnant mother who delivers at the government health facilities.

A Mama Kit package contains a one meter piece of cotton cloth (baby wrapper), one laundry soap, a pair of gloves, a piece of cotton wool, small gauze, cord ligature, and a meter of polythene sheet which is used on the delivery table.

In many government health facilities country wide, these essential items are not easily affordable by pregnant mothers. But in Yobe State, not only have pregnant mothers had access to the most essential items but it has also led to great reduction in infections in new born babies.

Previously, a mother would come without just anything from home, most of the time an unwashed rag, by providing the basic essential things needed for delivery, the Mama Kit has made a dramatic change in delivery procedures.

“This has helped us prevent infection of the mother and the new born,” says Fatima, a midwife at the State Specialist Hospital, Damaturu.

The mama kits serve as a self selling incentive for institutional delivery.

“With this wonder kit, mothers mobilize fellow mothers. The kits sell themselves,” says the Honourable Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mohammed Lawan Gana.