Demand for ANC rises but gap remains in safe delivery
A health project sponsored by the Norwegian and British governments has found increasing demand for antenatal services among women in four northern states of Nigeria though the number of births overseen by skilled attendants is still low. More than 212,800 antenatal visits were recorded in five years, up from 14,500 visits in 2008, according […]
A health project sponsored by the Norwegian and British governments has found increasing demand for antenatal services among women in four northern states of Nigeria though the number of births overseen by skilled attendants is still low.More than 212,800 antenatal visits were recorded in five years, up from 14,500 visits in 2008, according to data released Tuesday in Abuja by the Partnership for Reviving Routine Immunisation in Northern Nigeria: Maternal and Child Health Initiative (PRRINN-MNCH) which ran for seven years in Yobe, Zamfara, Katsina and Jigawa.
Deliveries overseen by skilled attendants also increased from 8,172 in 2008 to 72,128 last year.
Work in the four states saved the lives of some 53,900 infants, 115,504 children aged under five as well as 21,956 women, said Dr Ahmad Abdulwahab, national programme manager for PRRINN-MNCH, which disseminated the results of its seven-year project.
Among its achievements, the project recorded no death among pregnant women for two straight years in Anguwar-Agage community of Danja council area of Katsina state, according to Musa Matazu, team leader for the project in Katsina.
Its success was predicated on its ability to engage men to become more interested in their wives’ health, as well as able-bodied men in communities to donate blood during childbirth complications along with road-transport workers to provide emergency transport for a woman in labour to get to hospital, where the services are paid for by a pooled N100-per-month contribution by the community.
The project said deliveries conducted by skilled birth attendants increased significantly but figures for skilled birth attendants were still low, considering the number of women who came for antenatal services.
The 2013 National Demographic Health Survey showed gaps between overall antenatal clinic and use of skilled birth attendants was most pronounced in the north west and north east regions, where they reach almost 29%.
Executive director of National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Ado Muhammad, said PRRIN-MNCH had “raised the bar” on targets for maternal and child health in the four states, where it helped push up the number of routine covered by routine immunisation.
A sister programme, expected to take off in June as PRRINN-MNCH winds up in July, is expected to include Kaduna and Kano among states covered by September.