According to OIC Othello J. Wesseh, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has given a strict mandate that no woman should give birth at home, as has traditionally been the case.
The President's mandate stems from the high death rate among women who give birth at home under the traditional midwifery method, he said.
Making the point to the Daily Observer in Zammi Town on February 17, Wesseh stated that his clinic receives far more pregnant patients than the capacity of his clinic allows. In addition, many women in Rivercess County give birth at home because of the long distances they have to cover to get to the clinic.
Towns in the chiefdom, Wesseh said, are so far apart that in some cases it takes 8 hours to reach the next town or village.
Nonetheless, health workers, he said, make it their business to reach the county’s expectant mothers for sensitization and education about the importance of giving birth at a health center.
Wesseh said his clinic performed 150 deliveries on girls and women between the ages of 15 and 25 in 2011.
If a maternity home is built in the area, he explained, pregnant women will be able to leave home a few weeks ahead of time and avoid giving birth at home, where the necessary medical care is not available, especially in case of complications.
Asked about the maternal and neonatal mortality rate in the county, Mr. Wesseh said these cases are rare in the area for now, especially because of his clinic’s outreach efforts.
“We reach out with vaccines and health education for the people because they are reluctant to travel long distances, and this is helping to reduce these situations,” he explained.
The OIC also named malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, and lacerations as other health issues his clinic often treats.
Geographically, Rivercess is a rain forest with hills in some places, which makes it a cold environment, especially at night.
Moreover, the majority of houses in the remote parts of Rivercess are mud houses, covered with thatches from the Piassava Tree, or other kinds of tropical leaves.
In addition, many people sleep under open huts on their farms, and most houses in the towns do not have ceilings. This means that most people sleep without mosquito nets. This would explain the number of malaria and pneumonia cases.
The people of Rivercess also live by subsistence farming, which involves brushing thick forests, felling big trees, burning, clearing of unburnt tree branches and vines, and scratching. Farmers often accidentally sustain wounds from these activities. Many, especially youths, are also engaged in gold mining. This would explain the cases of lacerations the clinic treats.
Many residents of Rivercess also drink from running streams and rivers, and go to the nearby bushes in towns to defecate because of a lack of latrines in the towns. This contributes to the number of cases of diarrhea seen at the clinic.
Also contributing to the pollution of the drinking water is the fact that swine, raised openly in the town under extensive management care system (where they are not contained in a specific location), cool themselves in the streams and defecate everywhere. They also feed on human feces.
The clinic’s Environmental Health Technician, Deborah M. Manbu, told the Daily Observer that with the exception of a few towns with public hand pumps, most towns have no access to safe drinking water, but depend on streams and open wells in the forests and near towns.
