The Safe Motherhood Day held on the 26th of May reminds us once more of the several sad cases of maternal death in the course of childbirth across the country and the misery and untold suffering that the often left motherless children go through in an environment like ours where the fate of such children is left to an uncaring society.
What is most worrisome is that many of the cases of maternal death in our clime could have been avoided through more ante-natal education and care for the mothers, access to good health facilities and poverty reduction.
UNICEF’s report that about every ten minutes a Nigerian woman dies owing to birth-related complications is startling and seems to be among the worst cases in the world. While the attempts by governments in reducing the incidence of high maternal mortaliy are appreciated it is important that beyond equipping the hospitals and health centres properly and providing access to such facilities, the education of women must be explored by relevant government agencies and non-governmental organisations.
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Often, the conventional communication channels- radio, press, television or bill boards deployed for the education of the populace is not sufficient to actually reach out to the many struggling women busy in the informal sector trying to eke out a living for their families. Churches, mosques, market women associations, women associations, female populace in secondary schools and universities should be permeated by the government agencies and the interested NGOs to ensure that the message of how to ensure reduced maternal mortality gets across to all concerned.
On days like the safe motherhood day or other designated days, trained volunteer health workers can be deployed by appropriate agencies and organisations across the length and breadth of the country to educate women wherever they are found. This will effectively transform the drive towards safe motherhood into a national campaign that would guarantee a faster sensitisation.
Whatever effort that is made towards ensuring safe motherhood is worthwhile especially when it is taken into consideration as UNICEF indicates that “when a new mother dies, her baby is 10 times more likely to die within two years than if she had survived. Without mothers, older children- especially girls often drop out of school to help run the household.” This trend has given rise to the increasing rate of female prostitution essentially for the sake of income generation.Â
Our leaders should rise up to this mortal challenge of maternal deaths and address it squarely. Safe mothers can create the much required stability in homes that would lay the basis for the better grooming of children that can in all ramifications be the leaders of tomorrow- on whose shoulders the future management of our nation would rest. Relegating the issue of safe motherhood to the background is tantamount to sending Nigeria to the gallows.
