A joint report by World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and World Bank has revealed that Nigeria recorded 58,000 maternal mortality in the year 2015.
This report was released on Wednesday, September 20, 2017, at the annual faculty day lecture organised by the faculty of public health and community medicine, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria.
The guest lecturer, Dr Olusola Odujinrin, speaking on the topic: Transitions in Global Health Paradigms: What Hope for the Health of Nigerian Women and Children? said, “it is most unfortunate that we are at this level of needless death as recorded by the international agencies where Nigerian women lost their lives to pregnancy and child-related causes, the factors that contribute to this are diverse including education, culture, religion and lack of access to skilled health workers and necessary drugs.
“The prevalence also depends on several factors, including living in an urban or rural area, socio-economic status and geo-political zone. The most worrisome is the report from Northeast where MMR is highest: 1,549/100,000 live births in comparison to the Southwest zone where 165/100,000 was recorded.”
Moving further, she said Nigeria has the second highest burden of maternal mortality in the world and contributes about 15 percent of the annual total global deaths which represent two percent of the global population which is made worse with the slow progress in reducing the maternal ratio.
According to the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) reports for 2008 and 2013, Nigeria achieved practically no reduction in MMR.
Conclusively, she calls on all Nigerians to join the vanguard in giving Nigerian women life a meaning if we don’t want to be on the brink.
