A renowned Liberian traditional and certified midwife, (herbalist) who is also a farmer believed to be in her early 90s in the Breakthrough Community, Louisiana Township, has vowed not to stop delivering pregnant women who go to seek service from her under labor emergencies.
However, she has accused local health authorities of non-compliment for her work except the imposition of fine against her simply because she still delivers pregnant women in the township.
Oldlady Annie Siafa claimed that local health workers often threaten to take her to task if they ever find out that she is still involved with the work. The allegation is yet to be disproved due to health workers’ refusal to speak to the Press. The claim was made on grounds that they received a mandate from central administration not to grant interviews to journalists.
Oldlady Siafa noted that though the government fails to recognize the importance of traditional midwifery, her mission is to save lives not on the basis of profit- making.
According to her, it is true the work that she does requires money to buy needed materials, she however prefers to save the lives of mothers and bring babies to life.
The herbalist-midwife revealed in an interview that certain medical cases could be performed by her in some instances that do not necessarily have to be referred to surgical functions; if someone of her assemblage is around. Her community service is widely known to some community dwellers who attest to the impact of the work she normally performs for people in critical conditions.
Oldlady Siafa has for the second time reached out to the In Profile Daily to express the frustration of those whom she said are her critics that do not recognize the efforts of her gifts and talents in the community.
“If the government will take me to South Beach because of my good work I will go! But I will not stop saving the lives of pregnant women to give birth in the community and afar. I have never done any work with problem since I started my work but some people are always jealous and targeting me,” she said.
She noted that it would have been good for the government to make use of the expertise of people like her to work at a particular health facility in order to help improve maternal health services; besides to serve as trainers of trainers as she is always encouraging women with interest to form part of the learning process.
Traditional Midwifery is considered an integrated part of efforts by the Ministry of Health in Liberia in collaboration with UNFPA to support the training of midwives in order to improve maternal and newborn care.
The Ministry has made it part of the healthcare system to ensure safer pregnancies and deliveries especially in rural areas; including initiatives to bridge the gap between traditional and modern healthcare practices through training and knowledge exchange.
It is meant to foster collaboration and exchanged knowledge between traditional midwives and healthcare professionals with the aim to reduce maternal and newborn mortality rates by improving access to safe and culturally sensitive care. The Ministry also supports the use of Maternal Waiting Homes (MWH) to provide safe spaces for women to await delivery to reduce the risk associated with home births.
Figuring out the work she does bear witness for single handedly delivering women with twin babies and some of them are now grown-ups living in the community and other places.
The old lady has admitted repeatedly working for many years in Liberia before the war; when she fled to exile in Guinea with continued work where she delivered women and returned to her native home in Todee, Lower Montserrado County, after the war ended in Liberia. Oldlady Siafa from the Kpelle ethnic background remembers her past and present works in community service.
Mother Siafa said she believes in the medicinal chemistry with the application and knowledge of trained doctors and nurses. She goes to health centers for treatment whenever she encounters illnesses that cannot be treated all by her.
She admitted having treatment for sicknesses like par in the stomach-likely refers to gastro paresis, a condition where the stomach muscles don’t contract normally to move food through the digestive system, impotency in both men and women to produce offspring, weak erection in men. Others are cataracts, pneumonia, ear infection or ear problem and fontanels otherwise known as baby’s soft spot locally called open mold and etc…
During the early part of this year, the In Profile Daily reported that on Thursday night, February 6, a midwife in her 90s delivered a pregnant woman who gave birth to twin-girls on the floors outside of the Maternal Child Health Center at the only government-run clinic in Louisiana Township after several hours of intense labor pain.
She was rushed in to the clinic in labor by her family members, a place where the family claimed she has been attending for medical treatment during pregnancy. According to them, they were shocked to see that nurses and midwives were nowhere to be found around the facility.
Meanwhile, the report since published has brought relief to the people of the Township of Louisiana with apparently improved services at the only government-run clinic.
Sources relevant within the community’s circle in which the clinic is located said the facility is now running a 24-Hour electricity service with nurses on night shifts and security employed. The provision of services has become the community ‘talk of the time’ especially for those accessing recent health services are wording the government for accomplishing service improvement.
The midwife in her 90s noted that she started practicing traditional midwifery at the age of 15- years- old. The certified Trained Traditional Midwife (TTM) also said in a previous interview that she got several trainings including one from MERLIN, an international medical organization during the stay of time of UN Missions to Liberia.