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.
 
In developed and industrialised world, the average woman starts child bearing later in life, with some education, and have their pregnancies and deliveries supervised by skilled professionals, he said.
 
On the contrary, he said mothers in developing countries tend to be younger, with less formal education and often deliver without supervision by skilled personnel.
 
Briggs, an alumnus of UNILAG and former Vice Chancellor, University of Port Harcourt, said India and Nigeria produced one third of global maternal deaths, while Sierra Leone had the highest maternal mortality ratio which was 100,000 deaths of infants.
 
Apart from education, Briggs said in Nigeria, despite the advancement in technology and skilled professionals, the maternal mortality rate was still high because of the environment.
 
For instance, Briggs said in the hinterlands of the Niger Delta, women were more likely to lose their lives and their babies.
 
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