SUNDAY Lengmang, a Fistula trainer and Surgeon, Bingham University Teaching Hospital in Jos, on Tuesday, said the use of partograph in monitoring child birth is key to reducing Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF) cases.

Lengmang disclosed this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos.

He explained that partograph is a graph like tool used in monitoring labour to check how opened the cervix of the woman is and to check the foetal heart beat.

He further explained that whenever the woman was checked, the reading would be plotted on the graph and the progression would show if the woman would have an obstructed labour or not.

The doctor, who is also the Project Director of Evangel VVF centre in the university, says partograph, a composite graphical record of key data (maternal and fetal) during labour entered against time on a single sheet of paper, is effective during labour.

He advised that “if the graph is tilting toward an obstructed labour which is the main cause of VVF,
the patient will promptly be taken for Caesarean Section (CS).

“If the health facility lacks the capacity to carry out a CS, the patient should promptly be referred and this helps in reducing cases of delayed or unattended obstructed labour which leads to VVF.”

He explained that partograph was developed mainly for Primary Health Centres to curb to the barest, the issue of obstructed labour and its complications.

He, however, lamented that a survey was carried out in Benue, Nasarawa and in Plateau states and it was discovered that less than 10 per cent of Primary Health Centres made use of the tool.

He suggested that partograph be used widely to monitor childbirth in primary health centres, especially in rural areas. (NAN)

– Jun. 19, 2018 @ 13:17 GMT |