Nigeria is second only to China for maternal mortality, leading gynaecologist Prof Friday Okonofua recently claimed. 
According to the Nation, a daily newspaper, Okonofua was speaking at a news conference in Benin, southern Nigeria in December 2021. He heads the World Bank-backed Centre of Excellence in Reproductive Health Innovation at the University of Benin.

Stakeholders have called for the embrace of child spacing, stressing that it curbs maternal  and child mortalities as well as constitutes  an essential part of wellbeing of families.

"In Nigeria, all Demographic Health Surveys, DHS, have shown this pattern. The 2013 DHS data showed that when births are spaced at least three years apart, the number of infants deaths fall dramatically, " Country Director, Health Policy Plus(HP+) Nigeria,Onoriode Ezire noted 

Nigeria  has been ranked 16th in the world following its decline in its crude death rate from 12.46 in 2016 to 12.16 in 2017.
 
This figure places Nigeria at 2.38% lower than its 12.77% in 2015. A figure that is close to Lesotho and Estonia as compared to Bulgaria which is at the top of the ranking with a crude death rate of 15.17% according World Data Atlas).
 

The Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI 2) said it has reached an additional 245,318 Lagosians with the message of Child Birth Spacing(CBS) in 10 local government areas between November 2016 and October 2017.

Speaking at an event organized for about 200 Community Mobilizers in Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government yesterday, Senior Programme Officer for NURHI 2, Mr. Adewale Haastrup said from the records derived from the ommunity Mobilizers, more Lagosians are receptive to CBS programmes.