Maternal mortality: stakeholders call for review of the healthcare system

Some stakeholders in the health sector have called for a comprehensive review of the country’s healthcare system to reduce maternal mortality. They made the call on Thursday in Abuja at the opening ceremony of the sixth Annual General Meeting and International Scientific Conference of the Association of Fetomaternal Medicine Specialists of Nigeria (AFEMSON). Dr Ayede-Adejumoke Idowu, a Neonatologist at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, said the review would bring about a drastic reduction in the maternal mortality the country was experiencing.

According to her, the review must revolve around both the primary and secondary healthcare facilities in the country. She recommended that functional primary healthcare with 24-hour coverage should be made available in each of the wards and every state in the country Idowu, who said that Nigeria had been ranked as number one highest in maternal mortality rate in the world, stated that it was possible to reduce it if serious attention was paid to the commonest cause.

According to her, drugs must be made available in all health facilities, and human capacity must be built around it to ensure prompt recognition of the factors that predispose one woman to it.

She called on governments to embrace Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the health sector to jointly tackle the challenges bedevilling the health sector, noting that “there is no country where the government does it alone”.

Prof. Saturday Etuk, President of AFEMSON, also affirmed that Nigeria had the leading maternal mortality rate in the world, saying that there was a need to rub minds together to save the lives of women and children. He said that there was a need for health workers to look inward and identify where the system went wrong and correct it on time with the support of the government. According to him, there are so many challenges that have made women not have access to good healthcare.

“Government must make provisions for health workers facilities which is their paramount needs, to make women and children who are supposed to be the most beneficiaries do the right thing”.

Prof. Jamilu Tukur, Vice President, AFEMSON, also decried the rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria, adding that there was a need to tackle those conditions that lead to high blood pressure and convulsion of women during pregnancy. According to him, these signs are some of the reasons why women die and why babies die.

“Also, most women don’t come for antenatal care and if they come they don’t receive the best care”. Tukur, who is the Provost, College of Health Science, Umaru Musa Yaradua University, Katsina, stated that there was a need to educate women on the importance of going for antenatal during pregnancy. He added that those who go for antenatal don’t get appropriate treatment, saying that there was a need for them to get the best care when they come.