Source: Leadership
With the recent report of 60,000 pregnant women dying yearly in Nigeria, it then makes it 166 deaths per day of women that die due to pregnancy complications. These are the reported cases, what about those that are not reported? It is now a matter of urgency for government to do more to reduce the scourge.

The joy of every woman is to get pregnant and give birth safely. However, recent statistics on deaths through pregnancy complications in the country is scary. Only recently, it was said that about 60,000 women die annually from pregnancy complications in Nigeria, meaning that about 166 women die on daily basis. It is an increase from the 144 statistics of maternal deaths in 2010.

The major pregnancy complications include: Excessive bleeding (or Haemorrhage), Infections, Pregnancy-induced high blood pressure leading to convulsions, Unsafe abortion, Malaria, and Obstructed labour.

Dr. Kennth Ugwuama, an Obstetrician at Zion Light Hospital, Asokoro said that many women in the rural area need to be reached. "In these outskirts, you will find women giving birth in their houses or with local midwives who are not properly trained. Infection is one thing that cannot be tackled in an uninformed environment. If for example a woman begins to bleed during childbirth how does the local midwife stop it?

These are some of the issues that the government need to look into and allow all these money they announce in the media to reach these rural area". He mentioned that northern Nigeria is more affected due to poor social psychology. "Over there in the north they would say that it was destined to happen if a child or a mother dies but there are ways to prevent such things".

In northern Nigeria, the maternal and child mortality rate is even higher as there are more women who lack the necessary information they need for better health. Many women have their babies under unhygienic conditions, malnutrition and lack of access to medical treatment because they deliver their babies at home with no skilled midwife.

The Kano state commissioner for women affairs, Mr Sanusi Kofar-Na'aisa, said recently that the rampant cases of maternal mortality in the northern states were due to ignorance, dependence on traditional beliefs and poverty.

Another reason why mothers are not receiving adequate maternal care is the lack of trained health care attended births in Nigeria is compounded by the fact that only six in ten mothers receive antenatal care from a trained medical professional. Nurses and midwives are the most frequently used source of healthcare. Good antenatal care can prevent the major causes of neonatal mortality in Nigeria--neonatal tetanus, malaria, and maternal anemia. Although there has been a lot of government claims on reducing maternal mortality, it has not really made more difference.

Speaking to Dr Kalu Okechukwu, a consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist at the Zanklin Medical center, Abuja, he said that most of these statistics are mostly from the rural area where these health facilities are either poorly managed or totally lacking, "the women that die from pregnancy complications are not in the major cities of Port Harcourt, Abuja or Lagos. They are in the hinterlands where there are few or no medical professionals.

Professionals cannot go there because there is not incentive. How can you ask a doctor to go and work in a place with no light or water or any form of amenity? So these specialists will refuse and it is not their fault." He also said that complications can also arise from abortions that was badly done, "Infertility is not the only effect of abortion but it can also cause complications during pregnancy or childbirth and so even though I am against abortions, I would say that it is best for the lady to either keep the baby or find a true professional."

While recommending a solution to the issues on ground, Dr Kalu stated that there should be more incentives given so that the specialists can be attracted to the rural areas, "if all the necessary infrastructure is on ground in the rural area, nothing stops a specialist from going to such places to save life because that is our major call. Government should stop paying lip service to these matter, they politicize a lot of health issues which is not good. Although I can say that the present minister of health is trying but more needs to be done or things are likely to get worse".

Dr Laura Peters, another consultant obstetrician told LEADERSHIP Sunday, that presently contraceptive commodities are free in most government hospitals but that was not enough. "Things are not likely to change if the government continue with the way they are going about this issue. The major change must come from the policy making level. Implementation is paramount and not just saying things in the media or visiting major clinic in the city centre. Those that stay in the hinterlands are also people.

They deserve government presence. Those people barely have good water or light to boil water. How can they stop infections when they drink unsterilised water all the time? Health centers need to be equipped. I saw one recently in Benue and there were only two beds and a chair and the doctor was not even around then. Some places don't even have light, so the government should sit up or else we can never make the 2015 MDG mark", she said.

Dr Kalu also suggested that drugs to prevent and cure eclampsia that can be life threatening during pregnancy should also be made available in the rural areas as these can help to reduce maternal death.

The Nigerian social structure is also a barrier to maternal health as some men do not understand the importance of child spacing or anti-natal sessions for the pregnant women. In a society where a woman's decision is always influenced by the men then there is much to be done as even the husbands need to be informed on the need to make their wives get anti-natal care to prevent any problems later on. As at 2003, only 58 per cent of pregnant women received iron supplements and only 39 received drugs to prevent malaria at the end of the day.

The progress by Nigeria to reduce the growing rate of maternal mortality and attain the millennium development goals so far depends on the right political will and investments made by the government.

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