Sokoto — Hafsat Marnoma, from Manona village in Wurno local government area of Sokoto State, was married off at the tender age of 14 some 30 years ago. She has had five children over the years, but none of them was delivered in a hospital or primary health facility, though these are readily available. Hasfat is just one of thousands of womenin the state who would gladly stay away from a standard health facility when labour pangs begin, and instead look for help from Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), and there a surfeit of them.
A United States Agency for International Development (USAID) report released recently indicatesthat about 95 percent of pregnant women in Sokoto deliver their babies at home.
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