From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
Fertility experts say they are working to bring joy to homes where couples find it difficult to have babies. They warned those expecting babies to stop falling easy preys to fraudulent baby making factories especially in South East and South-South.
They urged medical professionals to collaborate to fight quackery in fertility management. Vice President, Association for Fertility and Reproductive Health (AFRH), Mrs Abiola Adewusi, stated these at a symposium; “Success with fertility: The result of collaborative efforts.” She said there was need for medical practitioners and those in other callings that contribute to societal growth and development, to forge synergy to ensure proper handling of fertility matters in clinics from beginning to successful delivery of babies by those that got pregnant through IVF.
She decried the menace caused by quacks who convince desperate women having difficulty in getting pregnant through normal process. She warned such untrained persons were the ones involved in operating baby factories that have been causing problems in the country.
Adewusi advised medical experts engaged in fertility and reproductive health, to always be prudent in their dealings, to avoid getting into trouble with law enforcement agents when they operate outside existing protocols: “The ecosystem of Assisted Reproductive Technique (ART), is very wide. You must seek the consent of egg and sperm donors and ensure they understand their roles and responsibilities in such exercises.
“Doctors, nurses, administrative staff including receptionists, messengers as well as the patients are very important in the ecosystem of succeeding in fertility management.
“Lawyers also are important. They are the ones that interpret the agreements and will protect the professionals from intimidation and exploitation from those that may not agree with what you are doing.”
She said her association was working with similar bodies in the international space to research and bring new developments on fertility and reproductive health to the knowledge of members in Nigeria and urged them to further engage in local researches to keep abreast with evolving developments.
She restated the call on the Federal Government to create an enabling environment for core professionals to establish and run specialist healthcare facilities that will provide affordable services to poor Nigerians.
Medical Director, Life Point Fertility Centre, Aba, Abia State, organiser of the event, Dr Okechukwu Kalu, said it has not been easy for man to naturally replenish the earth as was commanded by God Almighty, hence the advent of scientists who He allowed to discover processes of assisting women to become pregnant.
He noted that IRT was a rapidly inventing project. He said the annual event was to create awareness on the need for health professionals to come together to assist couples in need of having babies they carried in their own womb, instead of patronizing foster homes, which sometimes give them babies of questionable birth:
“We need more centres to handle fertility management issues, because what we have presently in the country is not enough. Many Nigerians who can afford it still travel abroad to access professional services from experts while those that cannot afford it, visit quacks and baby factories where they pay millions of naira and end up not achieving their dreams.”