The hike in the prices of goods and services, especially healthcare, staking its toll on pregnant women, who have resorted to patronising Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) in Calabar.
The TBAs are community-based healthcare providers during pregnancy,childbirth and postnatal. They are more affordable than the orthodox practitioners, but often risky because they rarely have formal training.
Findings revealed that there is a surge in the practice and patronage, because of the high cost of accessing healthcare in private and government-owned hospitals and clinics in the state.
Speaking with a cross-session of some pregnant women in some TBA homes in Anantigha, Eserebo, and Jebs areas of Calabar South, they decried the high cost of antenatal care in both private and government-owned hospitals in the area.
Beatrice Essien, 36, who is expecting her third baby, said that she had her first and second babies in the general hospital, Calabar, when the cost of medicare was moderate. Now, the cost of antenatal care in the government and private hospitals has spiked beyond her reach.
Beyond this, she said that the cost of the too many laboratory tests required during antenatal visits is unbearable.
“My second delivery in the general hospital was a very difficult one because I had to go through a Caesarean session, which cost over N120,000, excluding bed space and other hospital consumables. As a civilservant with a salary below that amount, I had to borrow money to settle the bills.”
Another expectant mother, Uduakobong Etim, said though it is not her wish to patronise traditional birth attendants, she had no other alternative because she could not afford the cost of antenatal in hospitals or clinics.
Many others, who spoke, also attributed this development mainly to the high cost of doctors’ consultations, hospital bills, and drugs.
