That hundreds of Nigerian women die daily due to pregnancy complication, labour or child birth, in spite of the tremendous progress the world has made in medicine, science and technology is frightening, but that is the stake reality.
Hajiya Fatima Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, wife of the governor of Kaduna State, lent her voice to this burning issue recently at a one-day Town Hall Meeting on maternal and child health organized by the Advocacy Nigeria and Sure-P Kaduna.
She said that 119 women die every day in Nigeria from complications of pregnancy, labour and childbirth, adding that about 241 newborns die annually in Nigeria. She concluded that neonatal mortality rate is 40 per 1, 000 live birth. Many reasons have been given for pregnancy and infant mortality rate. One,many women deliver at home and ignore the trained health care provider. Besides, many Nigerian women still practise self-medication and do not care to register for ante-natal services.
Malnutrition may not just mean absence of food as is believed among low income earners, but the eating of wrong combination of food and this may not necessary be good for a pregnant woman.
The major cause of poor nutrition, self medication and home delivery is poverty. There is a full-scale poverty in the land. Many women give birth to children without the accompanying financial muscles to take care of them.
Apart from poverty, the level of information dissemination, today, is low. Unlike in the 50s and 60s when government agencies pass vital information through the radio or television jingles as well as town criers and other grassroots methods, the government has gone to sleep and expect everybody to navigate their way.
Perhaps government now thinks that with increased literacy rate, information as simple as nutrition, dieting, medical check-up and ante-natal services will no more be an issue.
This has failed because most of the new generations of Nigerians do not access such information. They do not read newspapers, magazines and quality books befitting their new status.
Although nearly every home has a television set, news items do not find a place in the heart of the low-income earners, who prefer to watch film, home videos, music and football.
As for radio, most city dwellers hardly acquire radio nowadays. However, the power of radio can still be found in the rural areas. Thus the nomads, tea-sellers and others still believe in the magic box, and so jingles on this can still make tremendous impact on the audience.
It has also been noted that cultural barrier is much to blame for the non-patronage of health care centres. In some parts of Nigeria, especially in the North, men have power of life and death over their wives. If a man does not approve of his wife’s hospital check-up or treatment, she might incur his wrath.
All this can be handled by proper dissemination of information through regular jingles on radio and television or advertisement in newspapers and magazines. The local government, in particular, should come up with programmes that will save the day.
Government should work closely with all stakeholders such as NGOs, traditional rulers and religious organizations in order to achieve the goal 5 of MDGs.
We advise rural women to patronize the health facilities at the various locations to save their lives and those of their children. Local governmentsshould also initiate door-to-door scheme whereby health workers can visit the rural pregnant women in order to reduce death rate among the women.
Since the rural women believe in giving birth in community based centres, the government should train traditional birth attendants (BTAs) to serve them.
