Mrs. Audu, 33, had just given birth to her first child at the Asokoro General Hospital. She was ecstatic and could not wait to take her newborn home, but her joy was short-lived.

“We’ve been asked to stay here until we can pay,” looking at her newborn, she said, feigning indifference.

“I need Nigerians to help me out,” she said into the voice recorder and looked resigned again.

Mrs. Audu, a low-grade civil servant in the nation’s capital, is one of many new mothers under detention in Nigerian hospitals as a result of their inability to pay their medical bills. Her case is particularly serious; shortly after giving birth, she suffered postpartum hemorrhage.

Up the aisle to the maternity ward of the Asokoro Hospital, a stretch of pregnant women are seen groaning under labor pains and awaiting available beds for delivery.

“All the beds have been occupied in this hospital. The women queue until there’s a bed space available,” a matron who asked to remain anonymous told me. “As soon as you birth your baby, you are discharged to go home, as we need space for others.”

The failure to implement the 2014 National Health Act is a major drawback and reason for the collapse of health facilities, which have turned into trauma centers for most pregnant women.

The act mandates a 1 percent contribution by the federal government from the Consolidated Revenue Fund that will help guarantee a basic minimum health package, which includes free health coverage for pregnant women and children under 5 years of age.

A coalition of about 30 civil society organizations and the ONE Campaign, in an open letter to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, called for more investment in the healthcare sector in Nigeria.

http://saharareporters.com/2017/09/27/jail-time-or-death-pregnant-women-...