Enugu begins free ultrasound services for pregnant women

The Enugu State Government has moved to improve maternal health care for pregnant women with the provision of free ultrasound services in primary health centres in the 17 local governments of the state.

The initiative aims to preserve the lives of unborn babies and ensure that the women don’t die during childbirth.

The Executive Secretary, Enugu State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Ifenyinwa Ani-Oshekun, while speaking during the take-off of the programme at the Asata Health Centre, said the Governor Peter Mbah administration was desirous of providing affordable and accessible quality health care for the people as a way of boosting the state’s economy.

She stated that the ultrasound services would be administered free of charge to every pregnant woman for the first month.

She added, “What we are witnessing is a partnership between the Enugu State Government through Enugu State Primary Healthcare Development Agency and one of our partners, Elephants Technology. We were able to provide ultrasound, especially to pregnant women. The same device can also provide ultraSound for other areas of the body but for now, we are starting with our maternal health. So we are starting with two facilities in Enugu State – the Asata Primary Health Centre and the Abakpa. We have a radiologist who will be present on dedicated days to ensure that the scans are performed for these women.”
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Explaining the importance of ultrasound services on pregnant women, she stated that it was important to preserve the life of the baby and that of the mother.

“You know as the baby is growing, you do not have eyes to see the expanding uterus; but with the aid of ultrasound, you can access a lot of things. You can look out to be sure that the baby is growing based on the age of the pregnancy; be sure that there are no imminent dangers and other things you may see that could spark off a series of interventions. It is important because it also helps to ensure that the mother’s life is preserved. Usually, women will come for antenatal care and during that time, ultrasound services would be provided. That is what we are trying to provide here and we are also using this opportunity to let the people know that all our centres are open and ready to serve the people.

“We will continue to scale up to ensure that every woman has access to qualitative health care. That is the least the government can do for the people”, she added.

Ani-Osheku, further stated that the agency chose the Abakpa and Asata health care centres as the pilot schemes for the initiative based on the high population of the areas, assuring that it would soon saturate throughout the state.

She said that Governor Mbah was passionate about healthcare and had recruited 450 primary health care workers, adding that the administration would this year add 1750 more to the system to ensure effectiveness and quality delivery of services.

“For the health sector to be resilient and contribute to the trajectory of the economy in Enugu State, the people of the State must be healthy, because when you have a healthy nation, it is a stimulus to economic growth,” she added.

Also speaking, the Enugu State Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr Sunny Okafor, stated that the ultrasound services would lead to improved maternal healthcare services, improved quality of life of pregnant women and reduction in maternal death.

“This is just like a pilot program and will be extended to all the primary health centres in the state. In the next month, the target is that every pregnant mother across the state will be aware of the services. The essence is not to continue to offer free services. It is to raise awareness and make pregnant mothers use the facilities. We thank Governor Peter Mbah for making the service available and free of charge,” he said.