Child spacing curbs maternal, infant mortality – Ezire

Stakeholders have harped on the need for child-spacing, stressing that it curbs maternal and child deaths, just as it constitutes an essential part of wellbeing of families.

Speaking at the launch of the Sokoto State Resources for the Awareness of Population Impact on Development (RAPID) the Country Director of Health Policy Plus(HP+) Onoriode Ezire, said “in Nigeria, all Demographic Health Surveys (DOSSO) have shown this pattern. The 2013 DHS data showed that when births are spaced at least three years apart, the number of infants’ deaths falls dramatically”.

HP+, a USAID funded project facilitated the launch of the document which is expected to aid the state in monitoring its population growth and putting measures in pace to check it.

He said through an effective birth spacing programme, lives of 4,611 children and 579 mothers in Sokoto State can be saved by 2020.

“Child spacing is the way to go, it will give our women good health, it will make our children live healthy, it will free resources for other economic activities such as education, health, employment and make the state prosperous, “he stated.

Ezire added, “the state is currently increasing in population more than the rate it is growing economically and that is a recipe for disaster.”

He noted that Sokoto’s population had experienced a six-fold increase since 1960, from about 800,000 people to 5.1million in 2015 while in 2017,it is estimated to be close to 5.4million.

“Such rapid population growth can have negative outcomes on the availability and accessibility of education, healthcare and employment in the state. At the current growth rate of about three per cent per year, Sokoto’s population is estimated to double in about 23years,reaching 9.8million. By 2050,the population will reach 16 million people, Almost three times larger than the current size”, he stated.

He added that slowing population growth through greater investment in family planning could help reduce some of the potentially negative consequences.

“Our population is growing and it needs to grow because God created us to grow but we need to ensure that as it is growing, we have infrastructure on ground to match that increase and let us protect our women from dying by ensuring that they space child birth,” he added.

The Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu, who launched the programme, said it is all about ensuring that population is maintained at a manageable level.

He assured that the state government would continue to give healthcare the attention it deserved.