Maternal health challenge

Recently, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Ilorin, Abiodun Aboyeji, raised a serious alarm over the poor maternal health in the country. Statistics made available by him revealed that Nigeria loses an average of 40, 000 women annually to the health challenge.
Speaking at the 150th inaugural lecture of the university entitled, “Pregnancy: The Burden of Womanhood”, Prof. Aboyeji called for the declaration of a state of emergency in the sector to address the issue. He stressed the need for the political prioritisation and commitment to safe motherhood.
He wondered: “Indeed, how else can we describe a condition that is responsible for the death of 3, 333 women every month in Nigeria, 769 every week, 109 every day and five every hour, leaving between 800, 000 and 1.2 million others with permanent disabilities?”
The professor hit the bull’s eye when he stressed that the “Nigerian women are at a disadvantage. They are unable to use modern contraceptives because of non-availability and inaccessibility and a male dominated society not approving legal abortion services because of restrictive abortion laws and sheer hypocrisy. Even when the pregnancy is intended and wanted, health facilities across the country are mal-distributed, poorly equipped and understaffed to take care of them. Eventually in the process of delivery, thousands die which in itself is a tragedy as most of the deaths are avoidable”.
The disclosure and concern raised by Prof. Aboyeji are fallouts of the deplorable state of the nation’s healthcare delivery system. Maternal mortality rate has remained high and worrisome in the face of the advancement of modern medical science which those charged with the country’s health management have failed to tap into owing to poor policy programme and implementation across the board.
Aside from the reasons advanced by the professor, other factors fueling these preventable deaths include inaccessibility to good medicare, delivery through unskilled birth attendants, patronage of traditional midwives, poverty and ignorance. Then there is the spiritual angle. Many women have also thrown their lives away while exercising their faith on the orders of their pastors for natural delivery when it is obvious that a caesarian section would be the best option.
Also, the healthcare policy of the government at all levels is not citizen-friendly and does not favour the average Nigerian woman who depends on the public hospitals and clinics to access medicare. But owing to congestion in public healthcare destinations, deplorable service delivery and high charges, many have surrendered their fate to patent medicine dealers, hospital/clinic attendants masquerading as midwives in their neighbourhoods as well as quack healthcare givers. In the build-up to delivery, some women do not attend ante-natal clinics regularly either out of ignorance or poverty especially in the rural communities where maternal mortality rate is very high. It is during this gestation period that the health condition of the mother and the unborn baby is monitored to ensure safe delivery. Overall, Nigeria’s healthcare delivery system is a casualty of the general malaise afflicting the country where nothing functions well. It is also regrettable that the public health sector is perpetually at war with itself and the government as exemplified by the recent prolonged strike action by doctors even in the face of daunting challenges posed by the dreaded Ebola plague.
However, we acknowledge the efforts of some state governments that have put in place free medical programmes as a deliberate attempt to address the needs and challenges of maternal and child care. These policies are commendable. Child bearing should not be a matter of life and death. The joy of motherhood is to have a safe delivery.
Government at all levels should address the challenges that bedevil maternal health and all the socio-cultural impediments pertaining to it. A situation where Nigeria loses 40, 000 women annually to avertable death is unacceptable.