Imams, pastors trained on maternal health
The training which adopted a new method known as Guided Open Space Technology and Spite Fire Approach was organised by the federal ministry of women affairs and social development in collaboration with Advocacy Nigeria (AN), a Non Governmental Organisation. Hajiya Balkisu Yusuf, an Executive Director of Advocacy Nigeria and a veteran journalist said the community […]
The training which adopted a new method known as Guided Open Space Technology and Spite Fire Approach was organised by the federal ministry of women affairs and social development in collaboration with Advocacy Nigeria (AN), a Non Governmental Organisation.
Hajiya Balkisu Yusuf, an Executive Director of Advocacy Nigeria and a veteran journalist said the community participatory seminar was aimed at giving room for the participants to brainstorm on factors responsible for maternal mortality and on how to task the people responsible for tackling the situation live up to expectation.
She identified failure of women to go for ante natal care, prolonged labour, brain drain in the health sector as well as dearth of equipment in health centres as some of the factors responsible for increasing cases of death in Nigeria and the north east in particular.
“Some women see it as a thing of pride to say that they deliver all their babies at home without the help of any health personnel…this is very dangerous”, Hajiya Balkisu observed.
Malam Isa Chana who coordinated the training in Yobe State said participants were drawn from Kukareta village, Damagun and Jakusko and the expected outcome was that husbands would through sensitisation and advocacy allow their wives receive medical attention.
The chief Imam of Fune Emirate Council Mallam Isma’ila Abubakar who was among the participants said he was rattled when he heard that Nigeria and India had the worse cases of child and maternal death in the world and promised to preach against the wrong notion among some Muslims who believe that going to hospital to seek medical attention was a great crime.
Another participant Hajiya Habiba Mohammed advised that the way to address the problem especially in the north east was to allow women pursue a carrier in the health sectors. “Many husbands prefer to allow their wives die at home than take them to hospital to be attended to by men”, she said.
Latest figure from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) showed high maternal, newborn/neonatal and child mortality rates in the country. Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is 800 per 100,000 live births while Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) is 48 per 1,000 live births with wide variation between regions. The highest rates were recorded in the North-East and North-West zones of the country while the lowest rates were seen in the South-West and South-East.
According to The State of the World’s Children 2009 report recently released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria is the eighth worst performing country in a list of 148 nations assessed in 2007 on under-five mortality as 189 new babies died in every 1,000 live births in the country.
Yearly, an estimated 52,900 women die from pregnancy-related complications, while an estimated 250,000 newborn die every year in Nigeria and the North- East sub-region with Borno and Yobe States on top of the ladder.