Dr. Roland Williamson Taylor was speaking shortly after completion of a training session organized by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The event was a one week training of trainers workshop on the use of family planning contraceptives to reduce the high rate of maternal death in the country.
Dr. Roland Williamson Taylor, who doubles as Gynecologist and superintendent of the hospital, said the training was for participants providing family planning services, and especially for those involved in using Intra-Uterine Contraceptive Devices (IUCDs).
He said the device is implanted just after a woman delivers and that they would be training medical personnel on how to insert the IUCD in women. He added that their families and their communities will also benefit from the training.
“Family Planning is part of reproductive health and getting the necessary skills to fix and remove IUCDs which is a rubber-metal object inserted into the womb of a woman to control birth rate and we need to train more personnel on how to do this delicate work,” he said.
He further said that the training is not only for Bo Government Hospital but would be conducted countrywide, adding that after the training the participants will be capable of providing IUCD service and support to women who have just delivered their baby within 10 minutes to 48 hours before the woman goes home.
Dr. Taylor said the method can also be applied to women six weeks after they deliver, adding that it was a roll-out program as the intention of the Health Ministry is to train more IUCD service providers and trainers.
He noted that as a participant in the training, he will train more nurses and also pass on the information to the ante-natal clinic.
He thanked the reproductive section of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and UNFPA for their support to end maternal mortality in Sierra Leone.
Another participant, Nursing Sister Memuna Bomie, observed that as maternal mortality rate is high, family planning is one of the strategies to combat this menace and IUCDs are very safe and reliable.
