Mentor Mothers a gift from God

Mentor mother Abigail, baby Seth and Grace

Grace David first met Mentor Mother Abigail Moses in December 2014. This was her first pregnancy, and she was surprised to find someone who would talk to her about services for pregnant women in her area the outskirts of Abuja.
Grace speaking- I was 5months pregnant when Abigail referred me to Karshi General Hospital. I used the ANC services all through the remaining period of my pregnancy.
While I awaited my delivery day, one day, during a church service my prophet saw a revelation for me and said I shouldn’t have my baby in the hospital but at home. I was comfortable with that because there was a man in the area where I lived (Orozo, Akwansariki) called Dr Yakubu, he was a patent store man who would deliver pregnant women at home.
On the 22nd of April 2015 at about 9am, I started experiencing a lot of pain so I decided to meet a midwife in the area, I explained the way I was feeling and she said it was labour pains and asked me to go to the hospital. But I didn’t because I remembered what the prophet told me and so I went back home. All day long I was in pain. At about 7pm my husband called Dr Yakubu, he came immediately and started the delivery process, he gave me some injections which made me vomit, he also gave me a hot drip and he kept saying I should push but the baby wouldn’t come out.
At about 10pm Dr Yakubu said the baby’s position had changed and that he was coming out with his waist. He then asked for my previous scans, I said it was in the hospital where I registered. He then said I had to go there to deliver that it had become too complicated for him. My sister in-law quickly called the Mentor Mother (Abigail). She arrived quickly assisted me to the hospital.
Mentor Mother Abigail cared for, respected, listened to and supported Grace during her pregnancy. In fact, she built such a bond with her that when she finally delivered at Karshi General Hospital, she asked for Abigail to be there. After Grace was attended to in the hospital Baby Seth David was born on the 23rd of April 2015.HIFASS is proud to be able to say that Grace is just 1 of many women who have been beneficiaries of antenatal care, and built rapports with their caregivers that they have asked for them to be at the delivery. We are prouder still that our Mentor Mothers, time after time, give extra time, and make themselves available to support pregnant women in this way.

A Symbol of Hope- Mrs Dzungur Mwuese

A Mentor mother is a peer educator who has volunteered, selected and have been trained to assist others in a peer group to make decisions about behaviour change with respect to Ante-natal care, STIs, HIV and AIDS. In the context of the projects; Mentor Mothers are mothers who have participated in a PMTCT program and are trained health educators and role models. Mentor Mothers motivate pregnant women to; access services, adhere to their medical regimen and provide a network of support for positive mothers in the community.
Mrs Dzungur Mwuese, a lead mentor mother in Tarka LGA is a symbol of hope for newly diagnosed HIV-positive pregnant women and is proud of the impact she is still making in her community, despite stigmatization and discrimination she faced on a daily basis, it didn’t stop her from providing emotional support, education and empowerment to pregnant women and mothers to keep themselves and their children healthy.
Through interpersonal communications and peer sessions held 3 times a month, a group of (15) pregnant women were educated and advised on how to keep themselves healthy and the steps they can take to have a healthy HIV-free baby. The education is done by “Mentor Mothers” who have been trained to provide life-saving health education and psychosocial support to their peers. During Mrs Dzugur’s first peer session with pregnant women, she met with a lady who had never used a health facility before for ANC or during delivery. This was the lady’s forth pregnancy.
“I asked her why she had never attended ANC before,” Mrs Dzugur says. She replied that her husband didn’t have money for ANC services and her own mother never used ANC. So I asked her to invite her husband for the next meeting. She went home and gave her husband the message. He was so furious that he couldn’t wait for the meeting and came with her to my house. Saying to me “you this HIV woman, you want to force my wife for a test.” I tried to calm him down but to no avail, luckily for me a nurse came to fetch water in my compound and heard the arguments, so she explained further the benefits of ANC services. The man later calmed down and agreed to register his wife. The wife tested positive to HIV, the husband also tested and was positive and were immediately referred for Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART). A little while later the 3rd child, a 4 year old boy, took ill and was tested for HIV, he was also found to be positive but he later died. The two older children were tested for HIV and were found to be negative.
After the first peer session 1 out of the 15 pregnant women tested positive to HIV, the husband was also found to be HIV positive. During the second peer session 6 out of a new set of 15 pregnant women were found positive. They were referred for PMTCT after HIV test. The numbers were increasing and mentor mother Mrs Dzugur was worried as they complained of lack of resources to access PMTCT services, so she decided to start up a piggy bank popularly known as a “BAM” in the community.
“I started the BAM with 1500 naira” says Mrs Dzugur, others contributed between 50 – 100naira as they could afford. As community members heard about these contributions, whether pregnant or not they wanted to be a part of the peer group so they could access these funds. Now we have grown so big, we have 86 members; people can borrow up to 20,000naira and pay back with interest. We use the interest to buy oil and cow meat and have a party during festive periods.
“Thanks to HIFASS’ Safe Pregnancy Project (SPP) program, discrimination has reduced, young ladies are more educated they come to me saying condom mother, can we have condoms. This job has made me so popular in my community because I am a mentor mother. It has also exposed me to other programs/projects, have seen my potentials and now I am part of Peer Scale Initiative, a TB volunteer. I have learnt so much on HIV that I can now carry out HIV testing and counselling. ”
Mrs Dzungur Mwuese a lead mentor mother, Tarka LGA
Complex challenges such as stigma and health worker shortages are still in our communities. Mentor Mothers are powerful change agents against the stigma and discrimination that causes women to live in fear and prevents them from seeking care.