SIR: At a recent gathering of health-oriented Non-Governmental Organisations, under the aegis of Mothers and Beyond International with the support of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), fearful details about the status of the health care delivery system of Nigeria were revealed.
 
Between 80 and 85 percent of health related issues in Nigeria affect women and children. Nigeria was declared 189th worst nation on some basic health indices. About 200 of every 1,000 Nigerian children die from malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhoea before their fifth birthday. Only five die in America.
 
Maternal mortality is higher in women living in rural areas and among poorer communities; the maternal mortality ratio in developing countries in 2015 is 239 per 100,000 live births versus 12 per 100,000 live births in developed countries. Young adolescents face a higher risk of complications and death as a result of pregnancy than other women.
 
A woman’s lifetime risk of maternal death- the probability that a 15 year old woman will eventually die froma maternal cause- is 1 in 4900 in developed countries and 1 in 180 in developing countries, but in countries designated as fragile states, the risk is 1 in 54; showing the consequences from breakdowns in health systems.
 
Women die as a result of complications during and following pregnancy and childbirth, the major complications that account for nearly 75 percent of all maternal deaths are; severe bleeding (mostly bleeding after childbirth), in fictions (usually after childbirth), high blood pressure during pregnancy (pre-eclampsia and eclampsia), complications from delivery and unsafe abortion.
 
Five women die of childbirth every hour in both rural and poor urban centres in Nigeria. This is because most pregnant women have little access to health facilities; are too young, especially in Northern Nigeria; do not space their pregnancies; or do not feed well. With fewer children, the food goes round, and the ravage of breastfeeding on malnourished mothers is reduced.
 
Family planning facilities and delivery that can reduce maternal death are inadequate. Again, the Nigerian state fails to provide counterpart funding to complement the foreign donors. And sometimes, donated family consumables are abandoned by callous state agents. Most Nigerian women now seek alternative herbal medicine, not out of choice, but because the private hospitals are far too expensive, relative to government hospitals that lack requisite drugs, and keep them all day on the Out Patient Department benches.
 
Read more at http://thenationonlineng.net/reducing-maternal-child-mortality-rate/