By Hassan Zaggi
A Couch and Mentor, Mabel Adinya Ade, has disclosed that a baby died in her womb, remained there for several days while she was not aware.
She also revealed that she died twice during labour and came to life.
Ade disclosed this when she was responding to questions from journalists during the launch of her book titled: The Fruit of Pain.
She called on the governments at all levels to give attention to the health system, especially maternal health, stressing that: “When proper attention is given, the worst complication comes out with positive result.”
Ade, therefore, called on women to open up and speak about the challenges they are facing in order to find solution.
“I died during labour for two times and came back to life. I have a baby die in my womb for several days. I did not know.
“I have gone through a dilapidating situation, come back from trauma several years after because the church supported me. These are the scenarious presented in this small book.
“It gives us the opportunity to understand that there are many things that women don’t talk about but they exist.
“There is need to break the silence so that people will understand and talk about these problems. The reason is that when you talk about it, you demystify it and you come to terms with it and you are able to find solution.”
On why she wrote the book, Mrs Ade said: “I put this book together as an advocative piece of material and as an education material.
“One; for students of medicine, sociology, theatre arts so that they are able to review the book, understand the context in which these cases happen, situate themselves as presented in the book so that as they attend to clients as medical students, they will understand the situation of the client beyond the physical examination.
“For other students as they are growing up into adulthood, they will understand that when I marry, pregnancy is a community project between me and my husband. If she is experiencing fertility issue, I could be the one with the problem, she may be the one, so we must put hands together and explore.”
Responding to a question on what the government should to address the high rate of maternal mortality in the country, Mrs Ade said: “There are a couple of things that the government needs to do. One is at the level of training. Maternal health and safe motherhood to be specific, could be given a lot of emphasis by way of budget and training. It should mainstream gender, mental health and trauma. “This is because a lot that accompany safe motherhood is trauma related.
“There is the need for trauma management associating with maternal health. We need to know who we are training.
“Government needs to do more in improving health facilities in terms of equipment.
“Many health facilities that have equipment do not have electricity. You go to a facility or Teaching Hospital, the generator is very small just for the theatre and there are no drugs.
“Women are dying because after surgery or after delivery they cant even have a small drug that prevents bleeding. Government needs to give attention to all these things.”
Earlier, the Wife of Kebbi State Governor, Dr Aisha Atiku Bagudu, charged parents to encourage their girl child to engage in science and other relevant fields such as medicine.
She further called for what she described as intense capacity development for girls in the country.
“The more women we have to encourage the none educated ones. It would go a long way to change the index and encourage more girls in the field of science,” she explained.
She called for a strategy that will help girls adopt a growth mindset that their abilities can be developed as opposed to being static and unchangeable.
“Negative stereotypes rest on the assumption that girls lack the innate ability needed for success. Emphasizing how skills change and develop over time challenges this belief.
“When promoting a growth mindset, it’s essential to convey that effort and strategies build ability, and that this is true for everyone not just girls,” Dr. Bagudu said.
