Twenty-seven-year-old Ransom Linus Martin, four months into her first pregnancy, has come to the Land of Promise church near the city of Calabar for prayers, but it is also where she will be giving birth.

She is not alone in her choice, but campaigners are trying to end the practice which is widespread in southern Nigeria.

The stocky woman, wearing a knee-length lace dress and a deep yellow beret is blunt about why she, and other women, opt for a church birth with a traditional birth attendant rather than going to a
maternity clinic.

“They do fasting and prayer here, and if you are pregnant you need to go to the place where there is God and there is daily fasting and prayers.

“At the hospital there is nothing like prayer. They don’t pray. They only give you injections. But as you pray at the church, you get closer to God.

“On the day of your delivery, God will help you and you will deliver successfully.”

Ms Martin believes that the church and God will offer more protection than modern health facilities. Unfortunately, there are reports of many women dying while giving birth in the facilities provided by a church.

Dr Linda Ayade, the state governor’s wife, is so concerned about the possible dangers of a church birth that she is campaigning to ban the practice, and is encouraging women to instead go to health centres to deliver their babies.

She has been going from village to village across the state, trying to persuade expectant mothers.

BBC