Reportedly, in Katsina State, a man has divorced his 14-year-old wife after she allowed a male medical practitioner to attend to her during childbirth.
The news was disclosed by Dr. Fatima Adamu, the Executive Director of Nana Women and Girls Initiative.
The teenage mother experienced a complicated childbirth and was taken to a hospital urgently, where no female medical practitioner was available at the time.
Consequently, a male medical practitioner attended to her during labor, which resulted in the breakdown of her marriage.
Although the delivery was successful, the husband’s joy was short-lived when he discovered that a male medical practitioner had attended to his wife during the childbirth. Outraged by this, he decided to divorce her.
Dr. Adamu, who spoke as a keynote speaker at the Human Resources for Health Production Dialogue, called on governments, particularly state governments, to ensure equal opportunities for the recruitment and deployment of medical personnel in rural areas.
The event aimed to bring about a transformation in the healthcare system, with stakeholders emphasizing the importance of accountability and efficiency in healthcare training institutions.
Dr. Adamu, an advocate for increasing the number of nurses and midwives in the country for over 15 years, stressed that governments, especially at the state level, must take responsibility for producing their own health workers, as there is no shortcut to resolving the shortage of healthcare professionals.
She shared a disheartening incident involving a 14-year-old Fulani girl from Katsina State who was divorced by her husband after giving birth with the help of a male medical practitioner.
Dr. Fatima Adamu highlighted the ongoing shortage of health workers in Nigeria, stating that the country’s production of medical professionals falls significantly short of the actual demand.
The latest available data indicates an annual production of nurses and midwives at 2.6 per the population growth rate of 3.2, indicating a notable gap between supply and demand.
