Anambra State Government in collaboration with the state Ministry of Health, held a two day training in Awka for community reproductive health officers from the 21 Local Government Areas of the state, on Establishing and Conducting Maternal, Perinatal and Child Death Surveillance Response(MPCDSR), at the community level.
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The commissioner for health, Dr. Afam Obidike noted that World Health Organisation (WHO), stated that Nigeria and India accounted for 35% of global maternal deaths; Nigeria – 67,000 (23%), India – 35,000 (12%) in 2017.
“In a low-resource setting like Nigeria, substantial proportion of the deaths of mother, newborn and children occur outside the health facilities. The establishment of community MPCDSR is therefore the logical means of capturing these details in order to evolve local solutions to the prevention of similar deaths.”
He called on other states of the federation that have not keyed into establishing and conducting MPCDSR at the community level to do so and save newborns, pregnant women and children.
The commissioner who thanked governor Soludo, for always prioritising good health of citizen, urged the health officers to go back to their communities and share their wealth of knowledge with others.
Speaking at the training, Head of Reproductive Health, Dr. Uju Okoye who emphasized that the programme is train the trainers exercise which will enable the government to access and work with accurate data that will aid planning and prevention of maternal, perinatal and child death.
“Maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, not from accidental or incidental causes.
“Perinatal death is any death that occurs either during pregnancy (fetal death from 28 weeks up to birth) or in the early neonatal period (first 7days of life), while neonatal death refers to death of a newborn in the first 28days of life.”
Dr. Okoye also revealed that Anambra is the first state in the southeast to implement the Maternal and Perinatal Child Death Law.
She stated that the training is a big step towards the reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity in the state, she further appreciated Governor Chukwuma Soludo for approving and funding the training.
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On his part, The Head of Department, Obsetrics and Gynaecology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Professor George Eleje said that the training was as a result of the high mortality and morbidity rate in Nigeria.
He commended the Anambra State Government for organizing the training which he said will help to collect and document realistic data of those children and women who die in various villages but were not documented.
One of the facilitators, Ijeoma Ikeanyionwu, said that factors affecting maternal and child mortality are human factors (low health seeking behaviour), health system factors (unhelpful but widely used traditional system), and socio-economic factors (poverty).
On behalf of the participants the Head of Reproductive Health in Anambra East Local Government Area, Mrs. Adaeze Alokwu appreciated the state government and health ministry for the rare opportunity and promised to effectively train other colleagues in their communities.
