‘ Abia should step up efforts to reduce maternal, child deaths’

THE Abia State Government has been urged to step up efforts to reduce maternal and child deaths. The call was made at a one day Train- The- Trainer workshop tagged “Helping Babies Breathe”, which had participants drawn from various Local Council across the State.

Salient issues were discussed during the one day workshop held, yesterday, in Umuahia, Abia State Capital, for health workers and stakeholders in the sector, topmost being practical demonstration of how health workers should handle babies during and after birth.

The workshop was organised by a United States ( U. S.)- based “Inspire Hope Foundation” led by Dr. Chinyere Anyaogu in collaboration with the state Director of the National Orientation ( NOA), Dr. Lady Ngozi Okechukwu, the Office of the Special Adviser to the Abia State Governor on Diaspora Matters and Special Duties, Dr. Ngozi Ogbonna- Erondu, and the Office of the State Executive Secretary, Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Chinagozi Adindu.

A resource neonatologist from the University of Benin, Dr. Ikechukwu Okonkwo, said in view of Nigeria’s second position ranking in global neonatal and pre- natal deaths, Abia state ought to step up efforts to address the challenges.

Also, a consultant at the Federal Medical Centre Asaba, Delta state, Prof. Angela Okolo, had stated that ideally, a baby should not be admitted in hospital or medical facility in the absence of or without the mother.

The Executive Secretary of Abia State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Chinagozi Adindu, stated that unless babies breath well, they would have slim chances of survival, adding that the state governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu’s, government had effected numerous health interventions to improve the healthcare of Abians, including commissioning a modern children hospital at Umuahia with plans to replicate same in the other two senatorial districts of the state.