World population day: Doctors make case for child spacing in Kano

Health experts in Kano have lent their weight behind child spacing emphasising that ability to care for few children is more important than having many. Some of the health personnel who spoke to journalists shortly after the debating contest organised by Woman For Health between the students of Kano schools of nursing and midwifery to […]

Health experts in Kano have lent their weight behind child spacing emphasising that ability to care for few children is more important than having many.

Some of the health personnel who spoke to journalists shortly after the debating contest organised by Woman For Health between the students of Kano schools of nursing and midwifery to mark the world population day said it is also important in mitigating maternal and infant mortality ratio in the country.

They urged the married couple in rural communities across the state to embrace child spacing in order to lessen the burden of child upbringing and to enable the mother regains strength before another pregnancy.

Director Public health Kano state, Dr. Tijani Hussein who represented the state’s commissioner for health at the occasion said the choice of child spacing as a topic for debate among prospective health workers was very apt and timely.

He associated progress in developed societies to population control through child spacing saying it determines the quality of health care services in those communities.

Dr. Usman Gwarzo, deputy national programme manager, Woman For Health decried the bottlenecks restricting discourse on child spacing due to cultural or religious beliefs.

He said the areas with low child spacing profile have higher rate of infant and maternal mortality

According to him ‘’an average woman deliver about seven children in her life time and majority of these women wouldn’t give a space of more than two years before the next pregnancy and you keep on seeing small children and the more the number of children the more the burden on the family and the less likely for them to go and seek care’’.

Dr Nafisa Ado further advised women to be watchful of their diet during pregnancy saying by what they eat they could determine health and even the IQ of the child.