FG Urged to Declare National Emergency on Maternal, Newborn Deaths

Stakeholders in the health sector, especially on maternal and child health, have urged the Federal Government to make the health of mothers and children a priority, as well as declare a national emergency on the high maternal and neonatal deaths in the country. They said with current statistics showing 576 maternal deaths per 100,000 life births, and with one out of every five Nigerian children dying before the age of five, government must design an emergency action plan to address the issue.

The stakeholders who met at a national summit, tagged: ‘Accountability Now: Advancing Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn Child and Adolescent Health’ between February 16 and 18th in Abuja, said no woman deserves to die while giving birth, and that the high death rate of children under five was unacceptable.

While stating this in a communique after the summit, they noted that maternal deaths in Nigeria results from preventable causes, including ignorance, myths, cultural barriers, poor road networks, lack of access to health services and skilled attendants, mismanagement of pregnancy, illiteracy and pov- erty. Adding that, inadequate functional utilities especially electricity, potable water and transportation system contribute to the high maternal and neonatal deaths in the country.

“Most of the country’s health facilities are not in good functional state to reduce maternal, neonatal and under-five deaths,” noting that, government’s intervention must involve addressing these areas.

They called on government to scale up plans to eradicate the high mortality rate occasioned by the causes and risk factors affecting the health of pregnant women, mothers, neonates, children and adolescents.

According to the communique, signed by the 40 participating organisations, including World Health Organisation, Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria, Champion for Change, Department for international Development and Evidence for Action, said reduction in maternal, neonatal and under-five mortality would not only improve the quality of life for individuals and families, but also contribute to economic growth, societal and gender equity, and democratic governance.

“We are calling on government to ensure that every part of the country, especially rural areas and urban slums have functional health facilities with adequate skilled power, running cost and maintenance of infrastructure. There should be prioritisation of the girl-child education because of its direct relationship with reduction of maternal mortality.

“Government should invest in health interventions targeting adolescent and youths; create a scale-up innovative mobilephone/web based, social media platforms for enhancing access to reproductive health and rights information and services, especially targeting women and youths.

Meanwhile, the communique also expressed concern that coordination of donor and multilateral organisations for common focus was less than optimal and has impacted less return on investment , thereby creating room for donors to arbitrarily decide on areas of investments that are not priorities to Nigerian health challenges.

It added that civil society organisations, including non governmental organisations have not adequately positioned itself for partnership, resource mobilisation, hence the inability to effectively hold government accountable for our common wealth