The federal government of Nigeria is planning to carry out free surgery and laboratory services for all fistula patients in all Federal Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres in the country. This was announced by Nigeria’s health minister, Prof Isaac Adewole. The minister announced this while speaking at the National Stakeholders Meeting on Obstetric Fistula in Abuja.
Rebecca Ejifoma who carried out investigation on the use of family planning by Nigerian couples, reports that the overall acceptance is still below expectations in the country.
Ruth and her children
Nigeria has made progress in improving the use of contraceptives over the past decades. However, there is room for improvement even in the face of longstanding myths and misconceptions concerning their use.
First mother
Worried by stock-out of contraceptive commodities and consumables, experts at the Performance Monitoring and Accountability (PMA) 2020, a recent family planning (FP) review, advocated increased funding for FP by state governments.
In view of high incidence of unplanned pregnancies, Funmi Olaolorun, the Co-Principal Investigator, PMA 2020, stressed that increased funding by state governments would tackle stock-out of contraceptive commodities and consumables in many states.
Rural women in Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe and Zamfara states have taken a deeper sigh of relief following a decision by their respective governments to train 6,500 female health workers to man healthcare facilities in different communities across the five states.
The development was sequel to a partnership between Women for Health (W4H), a UKaid funded nongovernmental organization and the five state governments, Kano Chronicle, observed.
Uneducated women are more likely to die during pregnancy or child birth, a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology has said.
Emeritus Professor Nimi Dimkpa Briggs said, while delivering the first annual lecture of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), a pregnant woman who stayed in a slum and also not properly educated was more likely to lose her baby because of lack of education.
The birthday of twins Karen and Kelly Junior will always be tinged by sadness as it also marks the day their mother died in childbirth — a tragic occurrence of increasing public debate in Zambia.
Their mother, Karen Kalengele, 33, was admitted to the Medcross hospital in Lusaka, one of the country’s most prestigious private medical facilities, on March 18 to give birth.
Her labour was slow and, as she was expecting twins, doctors chose to perform a Caesarean section.
Annually, for every 100,000 live births in Nigeria, 630 women die. While the country has a maternal death rate second only to India, medical and social reasons are usually touted as the cause for these deaths rather than preventable factors such as poorly equipped health facilities and negligence on the part of healthcare professionals; hence, the consideration of such deaths as simply health issues rather than a violation of fundamental human rights such as rights to life and family life.
The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and the Cross River State Government have concluded arrangement to adopt a new contraceptive method for family planning in the state.
It is known as the Sayana Press Provision.
Madamai is a village in Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The community, located on a rocky terrain, is some three hours away from Kaduna main town; the community lacks healthcare centre, good road, schools and portable drinking water.
The journey to Madamai community which should ordinarily be a five minutes’ drive takes 20 to 25 minutes because of the bad roads which the residents say contributes to the death of many women in the area, especially those in labour.
Kuchinda’s lack is well known. In fact, residents have since come to terms with the fact that they have little to be happy about. They are located in Karu Local Government Area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), but that brings little comfort.
It is occupied by farmers, and petty traders with little or no access to basic amenities such as primary health care, safe drinking water and good roads.
The quest to meet these demands unfortunately has yielded no result.
