THE Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole has urged stakeholders in the Health sector to support the Maternal and Perinatal Deaths Surveillance and Response Programme, which would provide an evidence-based response for improving maternal and newborn health in Nigeria.
Nigeria, a country of abundant resources and a leading role in African affairs, still struggles with one of the highest maternal mortality ratios worldwide. Although maternal deaths have declined globally since 1990, about 100 Nigerian women die each day while giving birth.
The vast disparity between the rich and the poor in the country contributes to the marginalization of the problem. Leaving the most vulnerable to a low provision of accessible healthcare and nutrition, the disparity has been reported to be the largest among 16 other African countries.
Nigeria's former Minister of Health, Professor Adenike Grange has blamed the Nigerian governments at all levels for the poor health care delivery system in the country.
Delivering a keynote speech at the 19th Professor Bassey Andah Memorial Lecture at weekend, Professor Grange said short life expectancy caused by high infant and maternal mortality rate is one of the major challenges facing the country's healthcare delivery system.
Lamenting the increasing rate of maternal mortality in the country, Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has described pregnancy and child birthing greatest occupational hazard in Nigeria.
Addressing journalists in Ibadan at a strategy meeting organised by the Network of Reproductive Health Journalists in Nigeria (NRHJN), Adewole said that a nation must attach priority to women and children, adding that 30 percent of Nigeria's Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) can be prevented by Family Planning (FP).
A new report presented by the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) and Centre for Reproductive Rights (CRR) have flayed widespread detention of women who cannot pay medical bills upon delivery.
The report also indicated that the Federal Government has not done much to reduce the high maternal mortality rate from 2008 to date.