Nigeria Ranks Third in Premature Birth Globally

The wife of the Kebbi State Governor, Dr. Zainab ShinkafiBagudu at the weekend disclosed that Nigeria was ranked third among 10 top countries with high rate of preterm birth of 773,600.

Bagudu disclosed this in Abuja when the National Association of Nigerian Paediatric Nurses (NANPAN) paid advocacy visit on her, thereby attributing the statistics to the latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO). According to the News Agency

of Nigeria (NAN), preterm birth also know as premature birth is the birth of baby at fewer than 37 weeks gestational age.

She frowned at the rating, lamenting that a lot of preterm related death often occurred due to lack of sophisticated equipment that would ensure proper care for the babies.

She however noted that it was important and high time for the nation to rise up to its responsibilities by coming up with innovations and policies that would help in saving the lives of number of neonatal death.

Bagudu said, “Prematurity is the leading cause of newborn death worldwide and if we can save some of these babies we will definitely record more economic impact in our country.

“The resources in terms of human and material that is expended on premature birth and babies dying every year is enormous and we can do something about it,” she said.

Bagudu identified one of the easy ways to restore the lives and ensure better health for premature babies to include Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC), adding that it would enable the baby cuddle with mother in the absence of incubators.