Maternal mortality: SOGON seeks increased efforts towards addressing postpartum hemorrhage in Nigeria

The Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) has called on government at all levels, and other stakeholders to increase efforts and investments towards reducing the burden of postpartum haemorrhage in the country. President of the association, Prof. Okechukwu Ikpeze, made the call Monday in Abuja during the advocacy workshop on Accelerating Measurable Progress […]

The Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) has called on government at all levels, and other stakeholders to increase efforts and investments towards reducing the burden of postpartum haemorrhage in the country.

President of the association, Prof. Okechukwu Ikpeze, made the call Monday in Abuja during the advocacy workshop on Accelerating Measurable Progress and Leveraging Investment for Postpartum Haemorrhage Impact (AMPLI-PPHI) project. It was organised by SOGON in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, Jhpiego and FIGO.

He said there was need to ensure that medicines and commodities for postpartum haemorrhage are purchased and deployed and that people are trained to use them.

 Speaking on the role of SOGON on implementing Impact (AMPLI-PPHI), he said SOGON will work to create an enabling environment for early adoption through advocacy to ministries of health and professional bodies on the use of the national guidelines at various forums.

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He said the association will build the capacity of the state members (Kebbi and Ondo) and use webinars to increase knowledge of SOGON and other professional bodies.

“Our advocacy efforts will target key stakeholders on the sustainability of the project necessary for long-term success,” he said. 

While saying that SOGON will technically support the government at all levels on the implementation of national guidelines and national policies that support consistent availability of quality-assured postpartum hemorrhage medicines at all appropriate levels of the health system, he added that it is funding availability and supports national scale-up.

He said, “SOGON will advocate for improved pharmacovigilance, dissemination of national guidelines to frontline providers, and improved awareness at the community level.” 

He said the advocacy workshop was geared towards developing tools that will be used for advocacy to government at all levels; the National Assembly and other stakeholders

“So, what we want to do is to develop proper advocacy to stakeholders that influence policy,” he added.

Dr Jaiyeola Oyetunji, a chief consultant gynecologist at the Federal Medical Centre, Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi state said there was need for urgent action for Nigeria to reduce postpartum hemorrhage and meet the sustainable developers’ goals.

He said Nigeria constituted the highest number of women that died from maternal mortality in 2020.

He said about 82,000 women from Nigeria died representing about 28.8% of the women that died worldwide.

Oyetunji, who is also the technical lead, maternal and newborn health, Jhpiego, said obstetrics hemorrhage is also found to account for  27% of maternal deaths.

He said, “Our women are dying of   postpartum hemorrhage, and in other  for Nigeria to be able to achieve the goal of having less than maternal deaths, a lot needs to be done.”

He described postpartum hemorrhage as any amount of blood loss that causes a significant change in a woman’s hemodynamic condition such as low blood pressure, fast pulse, or shock, among others.

He said some factors associated with increased risk of developing postpartum hemorrhage are having had more than five deliveries, prolonged labour, a woman who has had a previous episode of postpartum hemorrhage, among others.