The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has
said that the issue of maternal health could not
be addressed without tackling the issue of family
planning.
The Minister stated this in Abuja Tuesday when
he received a report on: “Maternal Health in
Nigeria, A Situation Report,” which was
presented by Chima O. Izugbara, Senior
Research Scientist on Population Dynamics and
Reproductive Health, African Population and
Health Research Centre.
Adewole said that promotion of family planning
and child spacing are key ingredients to reducing
morbidity and maternal mortality in Nigeria.
He said: “We need to look at education, address
poverty and increase access to healthcare.”
Earlier, Izugbara, while giving the background of
the Report, said maternal health remains an area
for urgent policy and programmatic attention in
Nigeria, adding that nearly one in every four
women in Sub-Saharan Africa is a Nigerian.
He stressed that the plight of women in Nigeria
would vastly impinge on the achievement of the
Sustainable Development Goals in the region,
adding that investing purposely in safeguarding
maternal health in the country was a sure
strategy for improving on the current level of
progress and guaranteeing the future potential
for growth and advancement in Africa as a
whole.
He attributed top medical causes of maternal
mortality in Nigeria to obstetric hemorrhage,
infection following childbirth, unsafe abortion,
eclampsia and obstructed labour.
Izugbara said the causes, experts have agreed,
were largely treatable and preventable.
According to the report, an estimated 9.22
million pregnancies occur annually in Nigeria,
adding that a quarter of these pregnancies were
unintended and 56 per cent of the unintended
pregnancies were aborted.
Izugbara stressed that the majority of the
abortions performed in the country were
clandestine and unsafe, that is terminated either
by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an
environment lacking the minimal medical
standard or both.
As a result, unsafe abortion is a leading cause of
maternal mortality and morbidity in Nigeria.
In 1996, an estimated 600,000 abortions occurred
in the country and the number of abortions rose
to 760,000 in 2006 and to 1.25 million in 2012.
The report further said: “About 53% of the
population of Nigeria lives in rural settings are
particularly at risk for poor maternal health
outcomes, including maternal mortality and
morbidity adding that maternal health challenges
of rural women are heightened by the urban bias
in the location of health facilities and the
availability of skilled human resources for
health.”
Adequate funding is critical for addressing the
current shortage of high-quality human resources
for maternal health at all skill levels and
increased government investment in multi-
sectoral funding will help to address
infrastructural deficiencies that characterise the
Nigerian health system.
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