The Bayelsa state government is making a difference in the state health sector with massive financial investment in the sector coupled with the Bayelsa safe motherhood program which the state Governor, Mr. Henry Seriake Dickson promised to support with a take-off grant of one hundred million Naira. Less than two months after, precisely on October 31, 2018 the state government launched the health grant for pregnant women in the state which is a sum of three thousand naira per month as a transport stipend to enable poorer mothers access the free facilities at the antenatal primary health centres scattered across the state. At the moment, over one thousand women have registered for this scheme in Bayelsa state.
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In a bid to further cushion the economic effects of this time on the pregnant women, the state gave all women registered under the safe motherhood Programme Mothercare kits, containing 15 items, including insecticide treated nets, to help them during pregnancy. To see to the smooth execution of this laudable intervention, the state government have established medical facilities in all the wards in the state so as to ease the ante natal and delivery process where they are attended to by well trained personnel.
This intervention by the Bayelsa state government apart from serving as an ease to the women for safe delivery also helps by protecting the unborn children from congenital sicknesses and diseases. The promptness with which Bayelsa state government implemented this laudable idea is commendable and it is important other states of the federation and the federal government emulate such intervention considering the fact that about a million babies die annually in Nigeria from preventable diseases. This intervention will go a long way to protect the lives of this infant. Bayelsa state government have started well, other states should follow suit.
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