Several trained traditional midwives at the Kingsville Public Clinic, Rural Montserrado County, are appealing for urgent assistance, indicating that the unavailability of adequate utilities and needed medical resources is hindering their ability to provide essential maternity care for members of the public.
In a recent interview with journalists at the main compound of the Clinic, Madame Annie Pewee, a certified T.T.M. outlined the lack of electricity, unreliable water supply, deplorable condition of the clinic’s staff quarter, lack of Maternal Home, and insufficient medical drugs, as major challenges that continue to impede their job at the clinic constructed since 1972.
She emphasized that the absence of reliable electricity is seriously hampering their ability to perform necessary medical procedures safely, lamenting that many times, they have to relay on the use of torchlights or cell phone light during night hours to carry out delivery procedures of pregnant women.
She disclosed that due to the reservoir at the clinic being damaged years ago, they now have to hire people to fetch them water or get water from the community in order to run the day-to-day activities of the clinic.
Pewee then used the occasion to call on the Ministry of Health to urgently address the shortage of medical drugs at the facility, mainly for pregnant women, whom she says sometimes have to travel from afar to seek medical treatment at the clinic.
She also appealed the Government of Liberia to construct a maternity waiting center for pregnant women before giving birth, emphasizing no T.T.M. is allowed to carry out home delivery.