Safe motherhood: NGO calls for renewed political will

As Nigeria celebrates Safe Motherhood Day, a non-governmental organisation, Development Communications (DevComs) Network has called on the Nigerian government to renew its political will and commitment of resources towards improving maternal and child health care.

Nigeria is one of the countries of the world that still records high maternal and child mortality with about 150 deaths among women of reproductive age due to pregnancy complications.

Over two thousand children under five years of age die daily from preventable causes. These deaths are as a result of declining quality of health care services rendered to communities – especially hard-to-reach communities where they are already disadvantaged with respect to lack of public services. The National Demographic and Health Survey of 2013 reveals that coverage and quality of healthcare services in Nigeria is poor. Less than 20 percent of health facilities offer emergency obstetric care and only 35 percent of deliveries are attended by skilled attendant.

In a statement on Monday, the NGO said, reducing maternal mortality requires sustained, long-term commitment and the inputs of a range of public and private sector partners including women’s groups and family planning agencies, donors, and others should share their diverse strengths and work together to promote safe motherhood within countries and communities and across national borders.

“Programmes should be developed, evaluated and improved with the involvement of clients, health providers, and community leaders. National plans and policies should put maternal health into its broad social and economic context, and incorporate all groups and sectors that can support safe motherhood.”

It said, though Nigeria’s government has made political commitments and pronouncements towards achievement of universal health coverage and access to reproductive health care, the pace of decline in maternal mortality is slow, coupled with declining state of the health care system.

“These problems continue to linger as a result of lack of political will, poor government prioritization of health (as observed in declining allocation of budget for health), poor planning, coordination, and implementation of projects, lack of or insufficient data, non-effective use of data for planning

“Preventing maternal death and illness is an issue of women’s human rights. Making motherhood safer requires guarantee of these rights which include their rights to good quality services and information during and after pregnancy and childbirth; their right to make choices freely about their health including childbirth spacing. It also encompasses the removal of barriers that contribute to maternal mortality such as high cost of health care, difficult geographical terrains, non-availability/shortage of essential life-saving commodities.”

With low contraceptive prevalence rate of about fifteen percent, Nigeria continues to record high unintended pregnancies, many of which are resolved through clandestine abortion, despite the country’s restrictive abortion law. Many of these often result in death or disability. Unsafe abortion is a preventable cause of maternal death and can be significantly reduced by ensuring that safe motherhood programmes include client-centred family planning services to prevent unwanted pregnancy, contraceptive counselling for women who have had an induced abortion.

Safe Motherhood Day is an initiative aimed at examining issues around availability and adequate access to care during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal services.

The theme for the Day is, “Saving Mother’s and Baby’s lives: A Worthy Investment for National Development”.

It is celebrated annually in different countries on selected dates. In Nigeria it is celebrated on the 22nd of May but this year, the Federal Ministry of Health decided that the event should be celebrated on the 23rd and 24th of August 2016.