85,000 children die every year. Their crime is being born too soon

Fresh evidence indicates that up to 85,700 Nigerian children die each year from complications because they are born too soon.  Child health organistions, including MamaYe and the Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH) which highlighted the figures to mark World Prematurity Day in Abuja, revealed that the complications from being born before 37 weeks […]

Fresh evidence indicates that up to 85,700 Nigerian children die each year from complications because they are born too soon. 

Child health organistions, including MamaYe and the Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH) which highlighted the figures to mark World Prematurity Day in Abuja, revealed that the complications from being born before 37 weeks of pregnancy were “leading causes of death among newborn babies.” 

“That many deaths of children—that’s a lot, that’s a lot of deaths,” said Dr Oladipo Ladapo, president of ARFH. 

An estimated 854,400 babies are born too soon every year in Nigeria, making it the country with the third largest number of pre-term births in the world. 

Premature births and the number of babies who die from resultant complications in Nigeria outnumber figures from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Tanzania and Kenya combined. 

‘’Pre-term babies are nearly four times more likely to die within the first four weeks of their lives than babies born at full term’’, experts suggest. 

At least 15 million babies are born too soon globally every year, and one million of them die from pre-term birth complications; but intervention as drugs, Kangaroo mother care, and measures to help breathing can save up to 75% of children born too soon. 

Dr Chittaranjan Purandare, president of International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, in a message marking Prematurity day lamented thus “It is sobering that three quarters of those affected could be saved with accessible, cost-effective interventions”. 

He said the Federation is committed to “preventive strategies, which include family planning to increase birth spacing, and increased empowerment of women; improved quality of care before, between and during pregnancy; prevention and screening or management of sexually transmitted infections.” 

The group also backs reducing environmental risks as pollution, health promotion for women and girls, screening and management of pregnant women at highest risk of preterm birth and aggressive management when a woman has had a prior preterm birth.